My Calling, Night Warriors: The New Challenger!
by Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
Summary: Title shortened. With the end of one set of problems, a whole new set is opened.
1. Chapter 1

My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Seperates Paragraphs

A/N: Near the end of 2007, I began work on the original version of this story. While it was well-received, I eventually re-read the story, and came to the conclusion that it needed work. Maybe I'm just being my own worst critic, but I honestly feel that the story needed to be made over. Hopefully, this will do the trick.

I'll admit, the idea behind this was partly due to the news of Cross Edge coming out around that time. It's unfortunate that the game bombed out like it did. If only it had just a little bit more time to be developed...

Disclaimer: Disgaea's elements belong to Nippon Ichi, while Darkstalkers belongs to Capcom. Nelius, however, is my OC.

Chapter 1: New World

The world of humans. A simple, yet complex world, much like yours or mine. This world had its own parallel, the world of demons, Makai.

One century ago, one of Makai's high nobles, the vampire Demitri Maximoff, made his attempt to take control over this world. His efforts were instantly undone by the ruling family, Aensland, more specifically, their ruler, the gigantic (read: 200 meter tall) demon known as Belial; his name in other tongues meaning "Lord of Lies."

Maximoff, instantly defeated, was banished to the Human World, which contained the sole weakness of many Dark Ones like himself: the sun. In his significantly weakened state, one stray beam from this mighty star would be enough to reduce him to less than ashes, and so he bided his time, working to restore his power after his defeat. On every full moon, he'd emerge from his castle, ready to feed upon the unwary.

With the passing of time, Maximoff had regained enough of his power, and so worked to change the Human World to his advantage. His first step in doing so? Blot out the sun's rays. Using his demonic powers, he covered the world in thick, dark clouds, removing this essential light from the humans, and allowing the denizens of the dark to roam freely.

It's on this world, in a universe far removed from our own, that we find the next chapter in this young demon's life ready to unfold.

**Deserted Farmland **

The blinding, twisting light of a dimensional rift seared across the darkened sky. From this thin line that seperated and severed dimensions and entire universes, a blur of green reached out, slamming into the ground. As the emerald glow died down, it revealed the form of a young man with dark brown hair.

"Agh, damn, damn, damn! I have no luck with these gates." Shaking away the feeling of dizziness, Nelius got to his feet, orange eyes surveying the area. "Figures that it'd spit me out into a dump like.. hold on a sec..." Now he felt that something was off. "The air here... it's different, sure, but.." He looked skyward, seeing the clouds that blanketed the sky in every direction. "That darkness... no way it's naturally occuring." Something about the way the clouds covered the sky told him that this was the something he felt was far off. '_Someone or something rather powerful has to be behind this_.' The place where he had landed was a mere wasteland, little more than parched, flat ground; from the myriad of tools still lying about, he could tell that this ground was formerly farmland. Seeing nothing else around, he extended his wings and took off, flying low to the ground, which had been his first mistake.

Seeing the lights of a city in the distance, he turned to move in that direction, only to get sneak-attacked by something. Being struck in the gut, the young demon was sent off-course, but he righted himself, and just in time. His assailants made themselves known; they looked like strange imp-esque creatures, but were about two to three inches shorter than he was. They spoke to each other in some odd language Nelius couldn't make heads or tails of.

'_The hell are they saying to each other?_' He soon got his answer, as three of them made to attack him. '_How'd I figure?_' As the first one went for a higher attack, he brought his arm up to block the attack, and suddenly found his wing shielding him from the attack. '_Hold the... how did I do that?_' He quickly dodged around another blow aimed for his chest, then jumped back. '_Wait, this is just like what happened back underground at Brad's. If it can shield me, then...!_'

Now excited by this turn of events, the three demons revamped their attack strategy, and all went after him at once. Forced to think on his feet, Nelius went on defense, shielding himself from two of the demons, then jumping over the third. As they went after him again, he knew that he had to do something.

'_I got it!_' As one came in for an attack, Nelius connected with a fist to its gut, following up with an uppercut that sent the demon skyward, and ending it with a reverse somersault kick that knocked him senseless. (Triple Strike) As he landed, Nelius saw his other two assailants coming right for him. Jumping over them again, he found the gun from Brad's ship sliding right into his hand.

'_I know it's not fair, but fairness went right out the window_.' Taking aim, he shot one bullet right into the ground. Thinking he missed, one jumped up to attack, only to get a delayed blast from the ground. (Gaia Blast) Now seeing he was outmatched, the third one turned tail and ran as Nelius landed. Seeing nothing else, he spread his wings again and took flight, only to get stopped again; this time, it was due to an ad that flew right into his face. "The hell?" Ripping the ad from his face, he was it was an ad for some kind of performance. '_Not to dismiss the arts, but this isn't my sort of thing_.' Tossing it away, he resumed his travel toward the city, not even aware of what that ad really was for, or where it was he was headed.

**Nelius' home world **

Sorry, haven't seen that kid."

"Nope, never even heard of him."

Back at Nelius' home netherworld, the manhunt was still going strong as William had reached the Dimensional Port, and was searching around for any clues as to Nelius' wherabouts. So far, nobody had seen him come here.

'_All this time searching and nothing to show for it. Sirea's gonna have my head._' He looked up. '_Still, why is she so obsessed with finding this kid? It's not like he's got something that'll help her out. Far as I can tell, he's as ordinary as any of us_.'

The search continues on. Too bad Sirea never thought to place up security cameras around the port. She might've spotted him... twice.

**Back to Nelius, across the Cosmos**

"Pains in my ass! Die already!"

It looked like that demon who ran off had warned his friends about him, and so rounded up everyone who was ready to fight. Nelius was getting rather annoyed by all this.

Leaning back to avoid a claw swipe, he planted a foot in the demon's chest, then used his foot placement as leverage to send the other foot smashing into his chin. Backflipping out of the attack, two more demons came in to attack, but Nelius had decided it was time to mix things up some. Using a wing to block, he readied a little surprise.

"Blazing Palm!" His fist went forward, generating three horizontal tornadoes that caught three of them by surprise as it tore into them. Shocked by this, some went to flee, while the others waited for a prime moment to attack. As soon as the tornadoes subsided, the demons went on the attack once more. "Mega Wind!" Several more found themselves torn apart by the powerful gusts of the spell, and some of the smarter ones (read: three) ran off.

"About damn time. Good thing to confirm that my abilities can function here." With the distractions out of the way, he extended his wings once more and took flight toward the nearby city. Landing just outside the border of the brightly lit town, he quickly slid his wings into his back as he entered, noticing a general lack of people.

'_Hang on, something about this town doesn't feel right. There's a heavy air of animosity around this place._' Hearing the sound of momentous cheering, he rounded a corner to see an insane throng of people waiting around a concert hall. '_Explains where everyone is..._' A few seconds later, a convertible drove up, and out stepped a man.

He stood about as tall as Nelius did, clothed in a leather jacket and jeans fashioned with metal studs, the right leg of the pants bearing the Union Jack symbol. His skin and hair were both a blue tinge, an obvious sign of undeath, but nobody seemed to notice or care. Guitar case slung over his shoulder, he flashed a charismatic grin to the people.

"How's it goin, mates? If you all want a real show, then show me the freakin' money, and come on in!" He walked up the red carpet, watching as all the people cheered for him. It was obvious; these people loved this guy.

Just moments after the rock star entered the concert hall, Nelius had noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye, but didn't get a chance to confirm what it was, as the sound of several gunshots caught the attention of the people there, throwing them into a frenzied panic. As he was shoved and jostled around, he could see several humans adorned in brown robes filtering into the hall amidst the confusion.

'_I knew something smelled rotten_.' Backing away from the frenzied mob, he slipped into the nearby alleyway. Noticing a window several feet above him, he took a leap upward, grabbing the windowsill and climbed into the open window. From there, he made his way inside and onto the rafters overlooking the concert hall itself where, down below, the man from earlier was getting ready to start the concert. Assisting him on drums was some weird cycloptic creature. '_Either that's a really good costume, or it's another demon_.'

"Are you ready to rock!" Eerie silence filled the hall, as the humans in the hall weren't here to enjoy the show. He looked down to see the people clothed in the robes, and blanched. "Bloody hell, this crowd's so dead it's starting t' attract flies. Bad smell all right." He happened to notice several of the armaments they were carrying. "Garlic... silver bullets... that crap don' affect me none." Several jets of flame quickly changed his tune. "Now, flamethrowers, on the other hand... Fine by me, looks like it's time to roast or be roasted." With a strum of his guitar, his disguise began peeling away to reveal hollowed out eyes, clawed feet, and a giant chest cavity that revealed rows of sharpened rib bones.

'_A zombie, that explains the blue tinge... but I haven't seen one like that before..._' The cloaked men wasted no time in going on the attack. Flamethrowers armed, they began taking shots at the ghoul, who managed to dodge and weave through each incoming blast of fire, though one shot had knocked his guitar away.

"Oh, not bad, for a bunch of holy rollers." Stripped of his guitar, he was forced to go on defense.

Close nearby, a white-furred catwoman with blue hair had managed to knock down two of the cloaked men that were planning a sneak attack, but her movement seemed slow and tired. Most likely, it was the air around the city. Anybody with heightened senses would be affected, but animal-type demons like herself were especially sensitive to changes like that.

"There's another of them! Burn it!" Almost immediately, several more humans turned their flamethrowers toward her.

"You OK over there?" That momentary distraction was all that was needed for a torrent of flamethrower blasts to light the ghoul ablaze with a scream. The catwoman had tried to run, but a blast of fire to her back knocked her down.

Nelius had seen enough to know it was time to take action. Gripping the railing of the rafter, he hoisted himself over the edge and dropped down into the small crowd of humans who'd turned their attention to the catwoman, who was now lying prone on the ground.

"Heads up, you bastards!" Using the face of one of the would-be monks as a springboard, he quickly leapt over to two of the other monks, bringing them both down with some well-placed punches to the chest. A third tried to stab him with one of the silver crosses he carried, but soon found the world spinning around him as Nelius kicked him hard enough to send him to the floor.

"Who the hell's this kid?"

"Don't be fooled by its appearance, it's another Dark One, a Darkstalker. Get him!" Most of the nearby people turned their attention toward Nelius.

"The hell they just call me? A Darkstalker?" He nearly was lit ablaze by several flamethrower blasts. Dodging another blast of fire, he grabbed the unconscious body of the guy that tried to stab him, then threw it into one of the nearby crowds, incapacitating some of them, but they had finally decided to make use of their guns, and began firing. One of the bullets, even with all of his dodging, managed to nick him along the length of his right arm. "Fine, two can play at this!" Nelius pulled out his own gun and was about to pull the trigger...

"No mercy for kids, women or furry animals, is that how you roll?" Almost immediately, the ghoul, Lord Raptor, leapt from the flames, completely unharmed. "For a bunch of men of the cloth, you sure got some nasty habits and dark hearts." He began to grin. "Oh, but that's what I like the most! When it comes to feasting on souls, I always did prefer the dark meat. Showtime, baby!" Seeing that their weapons didn't even affect them, the supposed men of the cloth turned tail and ran... or, tried to run, except that Raptor had leapt from his place on stage to the exit. They knew now that they were screwed.

"Aw, the show just barely started. Don't you want to buy my T-shirt?" Rotating his legs at high speeds, he began circulating electrical energy around himself in the shape of a skull. Multiple bolts struck out at the humans, draining them of their souls, causing them to fall over dead. Raptor jumped back to his place on stage, reclaming his fallen guitar.

"Hehe, whaddya say, you two? You want me to save you a couple of souls?"

"Thanks for the offer, but organized religion's not my thing."

"No thanks." '_They eat souls here?_'

"Hehe, I'm of the nondenominational sort, myself!" Extending his ribcage bones, he began to absorb the souls with a ghoulish laugh.

**Outskirts of town**

"There goes another one."

Having assisted the cat-woman, Felicia, to her train ("You smell familiar.", she told him), Nelius had hitched a ride in the back of a pickup truck leaving the city, knowing it was smarter to lay low. Looking around the desolate landscape, he saw the scale of destruction created by the "Dark Ones" or "Darkstalkers", as most people called the demons of Makai. Cities were leveled, buildings still smoking from the various powers that the demons possessed. All across the scenes, many human corpses were seen, slashed, torn open, or completely destroyed.

'_Things here make back home look like paradise_.' Far off, Nelius could see the remains of a few structures that managed to survive the onslaughts of the demons. '_No discrimination here. Any attractive target that strikes their fancy, they attack_.' Now reminded of something, he reached over for an old newspaper.

'_Let's see what we have here.. Darkness continues on. Several months have already passed since the sudden arrival of the vampire Demitri Maximoff. Having arrived in our world, presumably being tossed down from the world of the demons, he has covered the world in thick clouds, blocking out any and all sunlight, and allowing the creatures of the dark to roam freely. Already, this has had a profound impact, not only on recent farming, but also on people's actions. Just the other day, there was a brazen..._'

The truck unexpectedly stopped, tossing Nelius around.

"Hey, what the hell's going on?"

"Can't go on any further, man. There's this huge fissure in our way."

Standing up to get a better look as to why they'd stopped, he saw an enormous fissure in the ground, stretching from one end of his vision to the other. The bodies of several hundred demons littered the area, random bodies suggesting their deaths by fire, ice, electricity, and some unknown kind of force. Up ahead, there was the burnt remains of what appeared to have been a church.

'_Damn, someone got pissed off..._' Having heard the doors of the truck open, he looked toward the driver and passenger exiting and running off, only to see a gigantic metallic fist come slamming down on the hood. "Whoa!" Jumping out of the truck bed, he saw his new assailant.

A large, silver machine stood before him. From the intricate designs, one could infer that it had been of Mayan or Aztec construction, but how could ancient civilizations get ahold of that kind of technology? From what could be considered its "eyes", a pair of red slits opened up, data flashing over them.

"Target recognized. Scan executed." Nelius had no idea what the hell this thing was. What exactly was it scanning him for? "Subject's classification: incubus. Target signature matches the origin of power dispersion detected hours earlier. Extermination deemed necessary."

'_Wait a second... Incubus? Me?_' An arm quickly morphed into a spiked disc, which was launched toward him. The young demon jumped back to avoid it, and the machine quickly morphed its other arm into an iron ball. "Wanna play hardball, eh? Fine by me!" Dodging from side to side to avoid the machine's attacks, he jumped upward. "Mega Wind!" The blast of wind collided with the machine, knocking it back some, but ultimately being of no effect, as the robot went back on offense. "Resistant to magic, eh? Resist this! Phantom Fists!" Jumping over the next attack, he brought his hands back as he launched himself toward the machine. Throwing his arms down in an X-formation as he passed right through the machine, he noticed something very strange. '_? My wings again..._' His wings had somehow grafted themselves around his arms, forming a pair of nasty-looking claws over his gauntlets.

"Target possesses abilities not yet recorded in database. Adjusting strategy as permitted..." Even with six deep claw marks running through it, the robot turned around to continue. "Additional units may benefit from updated information."

'_If this is what I think it is, then... got it!_' Now it dawned on him. "Let's go, you walking trash can!" In response to this insult, the forehead bead on the machine opened up, firing a chilling blue laser. Diving right beneath the beam, he quickly popped up, delivering an uppercut slash across the machine's chassis.

"Malfunction... breaking down..." Split in half, the machine quickly exploded. The fight over, Nelius' wings removed themselves from his arms.

"That's that... so much for my ride, though." The truck ruined and the driver long gone, he had no other option than to hike it. '_Still, who constructed that thing? And why'd it call me an Incubus? No way in hell could that be right... could it?_'

**End of chapter one**

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	2. Chapter 2

My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Paragraphs

Chapter 2: The darkness, repealed

No matter where you looked, there were small, shadow covered crevasses all around the landscape. On another inevitable note, the majority of them were the hiding spots to many minor demons, largely out to either cause trouble or ambush the unwary. As soon as they sensed movement, they decided to go into action. Scrambling out of their hiding places and keeping to the shadows, they sprang out to attack... and were promptly torn to shreds by strong wind magic, if their faces weren't caved in via well-aimed fists and feet.

Nelius, now out of a ride thanks to that machine, morphed one of his wings into a wide arm blade and brought it down at a nearby demon, slashing it in half heightwise. Two demons attempted to attack him from behind but found themselves impaled on his other wing.

'_I think I'm getting the hang of this, but these little bastards are everywhere_.' He brought a hand down, slamming the head of another demon into the dirt. '_Alone, they're less than nothing, but in numbers like this, they get downright annoying._' Recalling his wings, he darted out of the way of another demon's attack, brought his hands up, and slammed them into the ground, creating a large, growing field of ice. Several of the demons unlucky enough to be close were impaled on the sharp ice spikes, if they weren't turned into popsicles. The other demons, seeing the futility of taking action against him, decided to turn tail and run.

"They finally got the message." The imminent danger passed, Nelius resumed his trek. He'd hoped to find a structurally intact city, but no matter where he went, most of the small towns he'd seen were largely destroyed. Around each town, though, he kept finding remains of demons, the same damage marks caused by fire, ice or electricity all over their bodies. '_It's all the same. Whoever it was that came through here, he or she must be pretty strong. Wonder if they'd be willing to share a couple of secrets_.'

_Clank!_ Something metallic sounded from beneath his shoe.

'_Hm?_' Looking down, Nelius noticed the slashed and broken remains of weaponry. It looked like whoever came through here had one hell of a fight, and he must've brought a few friends along, as he took notice of several human and demon bodies on the ground. From the looks of pure terror etched upon their faces of both man and demon, something took them out mercilessly and without prejudice. The stench of dried blood was quite heavy around this area, and Nelius was having a tough time keeping his thoughts straight. '_Someone around here had a field day. Wonder if it's the same person who blazed the trail I'm following_.' Something in the distance caught his attention. "Hey, what's that?"

Near a cliff, a suit of body armor sat overlooking the area. Strangely, it appeared to have a demonic face on its torso.

"That's the weirdest set of armor I've ever seen. Never seen anything like that before. Who'd leave it lying around like this?"

'_Come closer…_'

There appeared to be some kind of pulse emanating from this armor... almost as if it lived.

'_You're mine!_'

A blade could be heard unsheathing itself, and Nelius turned toward the source of the noise, only to just roll out of harm's way as the blade, a katana, flew straight at him.

"The hell is this?" It circled around for another attack, and was quickly knocked away by Nelius' hand.

"Hn, you may be stronger than those fools who dared to possess me. Take it from me, this armor!"

"What was tha- agghh, DAMN IT!" Distracted by the voice, Nelius turned around, only to have his right arm's bicep sharply impaled by the katana. Seemingly having a mind of its own, it twisted around, slicing through muscle tissue and bone until it was yanked out and tossed away, at which point it hovered over to the armor. '_That thing possessed or something?_' He quickly focused a healing spell over the wound, but fully repairing the damage would take time, and he didn't have much of that right now.

"Hmm, delicious. Your blood is also of the dark. Very pleasing." As the blade began to glow, almost as if it were drinking the blood, the armor began hovering in the air, summoning the other components as a ghostly figure appeared. "I require more..." As the "eyes" of the armor began to glow, the figure began fitting the armor over himself. "More blood! I must have more blood!" With the armor perfectly fitted and the blade in hand, the ghostly samurai leapt over to Nelius, intent on cleaving the young demon in two. Quickly flipping out of the katana's path, the young demon found himself hard-pressed to avoid the samurai's attacks. Each slash, each stab was becoming more and more focused with each passing motion.

'_If he keeps this up, I'll end up being chopped to cubes. I need to... whoa crap!_' Having tripped over something on the ground, most likely another corpse, his back hit the ground as his hands quickly groped around, trying to find something intact that could match up to the samurai's weapon. In his left hand, he managed to bring up, of all things, a broad, double-headed axe, which barely managed to hold its own against the katana. It showed heavy damage, possibly from a previous fight against this demon.

"You have fight in you. I am pleased, very pleased!" The demon samurai, Bishamon, found himself excited. "Take it from me, this armor! Show me your power!"

"Sorry, I'm not in the market for a new set of armor." Breaking off the stalemate against the samurai, Nelius put some distance between them. "But I can give you this!" With as much strength as he could muster, he threw the axe at the samurai. As expected, the demon samurai Bishamon deflected the weapon away, but what he hadn't counted on was Nelius jumping up and aiming a diving kick toward the demon samurai.

Bishamon, momentarily distracted by the axe, looked skyward in time to receive a faceful of foot. Having the helmet knocked right off, the armor's face became animate, and an arm came up, punching him in the side of his gut and knocking him away. Rolling on the ground, Nelius managed to get the axe back in time to guard against a katana swipe.

'_Isn't this like old times? Let's see if I still got it._' Though he hadn't made use of an axe in a while, the young demon quickly defended against each attack and retaliated with his own. '_Yeah, just like old times_.' As axe met katana again and again, both combatants knew that in order to gain the edge, they'd have to mix things up. Too bad Bishamon took the initiave, sucker punching Nelius across the jaw. '_Cheap shot!_'

Stumbling backwards, Nelius quickly went on defense, blocking each strike, but this time took advantage of a slight pause to get his own attack in. Ducking beneath a horizontal slash, he quickly passed the axe to his injured arm before jumping upwards and, after wrapping fire around his fist, driving said fist through one of the eyes of the armor. The cursed samurai blindly stepped backwards, loudly swearing at him in some unknown language, but refocused and went back on the offense.

Neither of them had bothered to notice that the sun was coming up. Their fighting must've started before...

'_Wait. It's been nothing but dark ever since I got here. From what I read, that Maximoff character caused all this. He finally decide to drop the clouds?_' Sunlight, or something remarkably close to it, began to spill over the battlefield, illuminating both the fighters and the sky, revealing the thick clouds that still blanketed the planet. '_Nope, I guess not_.' One of the two combatants, however, wasn't so receptive.

"Agh! This light! How? Who reintroduced this horrid light?" Obviously, Bishamon wasn't too happy to be bathed in this light. Nelius, unaffected by this, decided to end this fight. Dashing in, he took a horizontal swing, driving the axe's blade through the armor's other eye, causing it to stumble around blindly.

"Enough games. Splitting Shot!" Splitting into three just after he tossed his axe into the sky, the three Nelius clones quickly attacked the samurai, launching him into the air. All three quickly jumped up, and each launched a blast of energy: the first kicked a blue colored blast, the second punched a yellow one, and the final one hurled a red one. The three blasts spiraled around, converging on the near helpelss Bishamon. All three blasts connected, sending the now silent armor clattering to the ground.

"That's the end of that. What a pain." Landing and converging back into one, Nelius put a hand to the air and caught the axe. Seeing nothing else around, he spread his wings and once again took flight, heading toward the sunlight, and getting a rude awakening once he got to the edge of the next town. '_The sun... hang on, there's two... no, three of them? What the?_'

Indeed, there were three fireballs hovering in the sky above this town, and their next action proved they weren't related to the great star that sat at the center of this universe. After all, the sun didn't shoot fireballs at indiscriminate targets. Those lucky enough to have survived the blasts were doing the only thing they could: haul major ass out of town. One such fireball was headed in Nelius' general direction.

"Oh hell no!" Pushing his way forward as the humans retreated, he brought his axe out in front of him, blocking the fireball. '_Mother of all-! Baal finally decide to come back to life or something?_' Having no other option since his right arm was still hurting from the samurai's katana, he put forth as much force as he could to deflect the fireball toward the sky, away from the humans and shattering the axe in the process. '_Damn, I'm out another weapon_.' It looked like the suns, now changing into something actually resembling the usual depiction, were heading elsewhere, but if they were heading for another target, why were they attacking random people?

**Some minutes prior...**

To find that answer, we would have to jump some minutes back to what appeared to be an ancient Aztec ziggurat, but in truth it was a center of information. What kind of center, then? One where the machines that had been rampaging across the world, the Huitzil, were mulling over information they had obtained after having been in a dormant state for millions of years.

"Class: Vampire. Strongest of the Demon kind in the Human World." Video of the Romanian Vampire, Demitri Maximoff, played over the screen, showing him decimate the Huitzil.

"Target two. Class: Succubus. One of the nobility of the Demon World. Many points of interest on its abilities." Now video of the Succubus noble, Morrigan Aensland, played over this. Unlike Demitri, who destroyed the machines outright, she used a strong magic to destroy them, shifting her wings into different forms.

"Target three. Unknown classification, but shows differing abilities." As this new information streamed in, showing a man with a dark blade channeling an electrical spirit to destroy the Huitzil, the monitors began to spark, as many of them began to rupture and malfunction; information overload. "If all three were to converge, even Pyron's survival chances are small."

"Huitzil, what do you know?" A glowing alien, physique rivaling that of the Olympian Gods, found himself scoffing at this information. "Fine then." Transporting to the top of the ziggurat, he was ready to prove the machines wrong. Using his immense power, he sent five spheres of fire out in random directions. Those spheres would soon become the fireballs that would begin their assault.

"Gather, lower creatures... Vampires!" '_Let us see if they truly are as strong as these machines claim_.'

**End of Chapter 2**

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	3. Chapter 3

My Calling: Night Warriors: Here comes a new challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Paragraphs

Chapter 3: Descent of Pyron

The miniature suns, sentries of an unknown force, circled the world, seemingly searching out an unseen enemy. The humans, powerless in the face of this new threat, had no choice but to abandon their homes and flee to parts unknown, hoping to avoid any further wrath of these fiery sentries. Around the world, large masses of people were gathered at the waterside, waiting to board one of the many ships that awaited them. The destination: anywhere but where the suns were heading. Those who had vehicles picked up whomever they could and hightailed it away from the suns, and many others simply grabbed what they could and ran on foot.

Already, news reports were coming in from around the world, showing that where these suns had traveled, disaster followed in each ones' wake, but, at four of the scenes where the suns had traveled, something else had been going on...

"I'm here now in Egypt, and as you can see behind me, the great pyramids of Anakaris-Ra, the mighty pharaoh who lead his people to victory, supposedly even after his own death, have been defaced by some type of heat, no doubt the work of the sun, but what would explain these still burning pieces of ceremonial mummy wrap lying around?" He then pointed toward the pyramids in question, showing the destruction that had been wrought.

The television clicked over to another news channel.

"I am here in the heart of the Amazonian Jungle, and as you can unfortunately see, the lush, inviting rainforest has now been marred by scorchmarks, the wildlife thoroughly burned. At the origin of all this is a large, scorched patch of the forest, supposedly responisble for the endangerment of several-" Just as an aerial view of the torched rainforest came into view...

Click.

"-Northern most point of Canada now, where you can see that much of the polar ice shelf has been melted away and broken, and you're not seeing any tricks, this water, which should be numbing my hand, is now warm enough to safely swim in. Enviromentalists worry now that-" The reporter on scene pulled a thermometer out of the water, it showing a temperature reading of about 77 degrees Fahrenheit.

Click.

"Here in Germany, you can see the castle of the late Professor Victor von Gerdenheim, or rather, what's left of it. That sun now over there ran straight through the castle, but it doesn't explain how these fist-shaped marks-" Again, a wide shot of the destruction came into view.

Another click.

It was the fifth sun, casting a glow on the horizon as it situated itself in the middle of a city, which these people were fleeing from. There were so many in such a hurry to escape that they never saw those who were instead approaching, nor did they get to hear the last story of the day.

"And coming up next, a surprising story. A pair of Darkstalkers, who are apparently helping us humans? Just yesterday, traveling musical star Felicia..."

**Castle Zeltzerich**

Outside the Castle Zeltzereich, all five of the suns stood patiently outside, lighting up the darkened Earth, but one in particular stood right in front of the castle, as if to taunt the castle's master. Without warning, the castle's cannons had fired off, cracking the sun's face, and in retaliation, the sun let loose a large blast of fire, melting a large part of the large stone foundation and the cannons. From an upper window of the castle, a flock of bats dashed out an upper window, gathering in a group to form the vampire Demitri Maximoff, the one who had blanketed the world in the dark clouds earlier. He was ready to meet this challenger.

From the face of the sun, a ball of energy descended, wasting no time in rushing forward to meet its opponent. The alien tyrant, Pyron, who had consumed many planets before this one, was ready to battle.

No words were exchanged as the two began their fight. Demitri went on the offensive, curling his cape around his feet into a drill-like protrusion, intent on spearing the cosmic alien. Pyron shielded himself in a shell of cosmic energy, deflecting the cape drill. Undaunted, the vampire pounded away, knocking the alien away with a series of strong overhead blows, then transformed into his demonic bat-form and launched a swarm of fiery bats at the alien.

Outright blocking and neutralizing the bat-shaped projectiles, Pyron curled into a fiery wheel, launching himself at Demitri before shifting into a sharp, fiery tornado. The demonic vampire curled his wings around himself, blocking the blow before forcefully unfurling them, knocking the alien tyrant off balance. Before Pyron could attack, Demitri punched the alien in the face with his signature right hook, then stabbed the tyrant through his right pectoral with his left hand curled into a stabbing point. When the vampire found himself unable to withdraw his hand, Pyron knew the advantage was his.

Over the course of two hundred million years, Pyron had evolved past the point of a physical body, becoming now made of a type of psychic energy, and as such Demitri's attacks felt more like a forceful tickle than something with the intent to cause harm. With a demented grin on his face, Pyron encased the both of them in a shell of energy before teleporting to the roof of one of the abandoned houses to continue the battle.

Even while in his human form, Demitri refused to let this alien defeat him, not after his humiliating defeat at the hand of Belial Aensland, and then a century of rebuilding his power. He dodged Pyron's blazing wheel, only to be grabbed by his foot and smashed six times into the roof. The vampire, still reeling from the multiple slams, was left unable to properly defend against a Sol Smasher fireball. Forced down onto one knee, Demitri tried to get back on his feet.

"The Huitzil tell me you are the most powerful opponent this planet has to offer. Was this a mere mistake?" Pyron stared down at the nearly defeated vampire, mocking him.

"The mistake is underestimating the power of the Demon World!" With a flying leap, Demitri tried another right hook, only to have his opponent teleport to a small distance behind him.

"Power of the Demon World?" For some reason, this statement left him with a feeling of excitement, which quickly degenerated into disappointment. "Your so called power is barely sport against my own. Mine is but the strongest in the known universe!" Raising one hand, he created blue spheres of incredible energy, the Cosmic Disruption. Demitri had attempted to flee or put some distance between them, but the spheres were much faster, flying a small distance ahead of the vampire before exploding, coating Demitri's body in fiery plasmic energy. Summoning more spheres, Pyron commanded them to crash into the vampire, which in turn caused Demitri to crash into the pillar of stone that supported his castle. The force of Demitri crashing through the foundation cracked the stone so deeply, it caused the entire castle to come toppling down on its side.

Demitri Maximoff, one of the strongest, most feared nobility of the Demon World, was utterly defeated in under two minutes.

"Was this truly the best this world, this Earth, has to offer? Am I to be disappointed yet again!" Immediately, dozens of the machines, the Huitzil, began to appear, rising up from the abandoned structures. "Ah, Huitzil, perfect timing. There's something I must know. Was this the enemy I had to defeat?" Silence. "When I first passed by this world, I heard stories of beings so powerful, that killer machines were dispatched to ensure the stall of their evolution. Thus, I had the great expectation that this world would provide a victory greater than any other I have experienced!" He turned to the nearest one. "I can admit this, there is a certain level of combat to be found here, but not one has yet been able to satisfy me."

"Life forms are not required to fight one another. A peaceful coexistance shall generate a natural balance." At the Huitzil's message, Pyron simply chuckled.

"You've overseen this world's history, but you've made one critical oversight. I am the ultimate form of this world's evolution! It is through battle, that the weak are weeded out to ensure the survival of the strongest. Such is evolution! So long as you unnatural machines are around, this world's true ruler can never come about."

"When battle and war prevail, life must be exterminated. The will to fight is not a perogative of life. This world has no need for such a destroyer!" Now realizing their true target, the machines went on the offense. The Huitzil made full use of their nearly limitless arsenal; rockets, machine guns, none of it was any match for the alien being. In mere moments, all that remained of the Huitzil was melted metal scraps, if they were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of a weaker attack.

Not too far away from the site of the battle, Nelius had witnessed everything that just happened. He could do little but stare in shock.

'_Damn, he's that powerful?_' Realizing where his thoughts were headed, he rid himself of the idea. "I can't let myself fall into that again. This isn't about just me anymore." If that alien, Pyron, were to find his way toward Nelius' home, no amount of power alone could stop him, especially since the two strongest contendors took each other out in a war centuries ago.

Now wasn't the time for self-doubt. '_But do I seriously stand a chance as I am now?_'

**End of chapter 3**

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	4. Chapter 4

My Calling. Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Chapters

Chapter 4: End of a Tyrant

Various shouts and attacks could be heard echoing through the empty city. A pair of people had decided to attack Pyron, and how appropriate that they chose a Colosseum to be the battleground.

Pyron, encased in his shell of energy, repelled a set of metallic claws attached by a chain.

On the other side, a young woman with blue-tinted skin, dressed in a Manchurian burial robe, retracted the claws back into the sleeves of her outfit while her sister, a brunette dressed in yellow oriental robes, charged in with a blade, swiping away at the alien. The pair alternated attacks; when one finished her attack, the other would step in. Too bad neither of them could tell that their attacks were barely even tickling him.

"Sis, get back!" The one with blue skin ordered. "Take this!" Slamming her metal claws into the ground, blades adorned with Chinese letters began rising from the ground, almost in a shockwave motion.

"Pathetic." Thoroughly unimpressed by this show, Pyron leveled a blast of energy at the ground, tearing up the stone floor of the Coliseum, sending chunks of stone and metal toward the young woman, who was sent flying backwards by the sheer force of the blast.

"Hsien-ko!" Hsien-ko's sister, Mei-Ling, discarded her blade in order to catch her sister. "Are you all right?" No external wounds were seen, but that blast's strength could've easily killed her.

"Damn it, he's stronger than I imagined." Hsien-ko tried to stand, Pyron's attack had left her unable to move. "Sis, what're we gonna do? None of our attacks are working." If there was such an answer, it was eluding them rather efficiently, as Pyron was getting ready to attack again. Deciding it was time to finish this, the spheres of the Cosmic Disruption had been formed, and their targets were the sisters whose attacks were ineffective. Mei-Ling remembered this maneuver, the blasts had a level of sentience, and even if she had the strength to both carry her sister and jump away from the attack, the spheres would follow. Options were at a premium, but time was running extremely short, as the spheres were quickly closing in.

All at once, several spearheaded wind blasts ripped through the air, meeting and canceling out each of the blasts. When some had managed to slip through, a wall of stone and ice quickly raised up in front of them, creating a temporary barrier. Looking behind them, they saw someone standing there, the originator of the wall.

"Now would be a good time for you to move." Nelius advised them. Even though his wall was being strengthened by his mana, he wouldn't be able to hold this defense up for too long. Taking his advice, Mei-Ling scooped her sister up in her arms and took a leap to a higher stand. Nelius quickly dropped his guard and also jumped away, letting the attack crash through this artificial wall and blast into the real wall.

"Damn. No wonder this guy practically killed that Demitri guy." Taking a good look at where the attack had landed, he was trying to figure out a way to combat this alien being. '_He's easily got to be as strong as the late Tyrant Baal. Can't afford to screw this up_.'

"Anita!" Mei-Ling recognized the little girl that was walking into the center of the arena. Hsien-ko had taken a moment to shout to her, as well. "Anita, don't do it! Get away!"

To this young girl with violet eyes, only one name had come to her…

"Donovan!"

Hearing his name, the vampire hunter Donovan appeared through one of the many entrances. He knew it was time to battle.

A floating blade clashed against a fiery shell of energy, as Donovan commanded the blade, Dhylec, to attack. Even as his blade circled Pyron and struck out at random intervals, he attacked as well, but like all the others, his offense was lacking in one critical point.

"Something's up. This guy's got nothing following his strikes." Nelius was carefully watching as Donovan fought against Pyron. "He shouldn't be holding back like that." The Vampire Hunter was blown backwards by the force of one of Pyron's fireblasts. "Why isn't he going all out?"

"His own self doubt, it's robbing him of what would be his strength." Donovan tried to defend against one of Pyron's punches, but the alien's strength was too much to handle, and his large prayer beads' defensive barrier was shattered as the alien punched energy spikes through his chest, causing the vampire hunter to cough up blood. "Half of Donovan's blood is demonic in nature. His failure... no, his inability to accept that part of himself drains away what would otherwise be his power." Donovan was forced against the wall by another one of Pyron's attacks, his lower chest and back bleeding heavily.

"He better get his act together, and fast!" Nelius warned, turning their attention toward the fight. "Otherwise there won't be anything left of him to accept!"

"Enough of this. What sport can there be in an opponent who can hardly fight back?" Pyron had taken to alternating left and right uppercuts across Donovan's face, spilling more blood everywhere. "So please, remove yourself from my sight at once!" Launching what could be considered a miniature sun at the dhampir, he placed enough force behind it to send his opponent crashing through the stone stands, rapidly flying upward, spilling his own blood everywhere, until he came to a stop with a sickening crunch, crashing against a pillar, then falling forward, his own blood spilling everywhere and coating the stone seats a disturbing shade of crimson.

First Demitri, now Donovan… Nelius was seriously beginning to think his chances of defeating Pyron were desperately slim. What chance did he have fighting back against, let alone defeating the being that already defeated two other people easily more powerful than he was?

'_Damnit, I told myself I wasn't going to think like that!_' He shook his head, ridding himself of his own self-doubt. He left his home netherworld with a mission: to become stronger in both body and mind, to accomplish what he couldn't under his former boss' tyrannical rule. He couldn't let himself fall prey to the same trap Donovan had already fallen to. '_If I let myself fall into that trap, I may as well ask my old boss to seal me up again!_' He looked toward Pyron. '_Course, I'm not gonna let that happen_.'

'_You have a plan, then?_' A questioning voice in the back of his mind beckoned. '_You said it yourself, he easily has the power to rival even Zetta or Baal. That body of his is composed of pure psychic energy; normal attacks only serve to tickle him_.'

'_I know, I know..._' An idea then came to him. '_Wait. Both Demitri and Donovan were mostly using physical attacks against him_.' He looked down to his father's gauntlet. '_I've got demons' power, magic from my home dimension. That could be the solution_.'

'_Are you out of your mind? Both Demitri and Donovan tried to attack him, and look at what happened to the both of them._'

'_Stop right there. I already told myself I wasn't going to fall to the same trap again. If I do nothing, it'll be the same as letting myself fall into Sirea's greedy mitts again_.'

Refocusing himself, he allowed his wings to spread before he took a leap, soaring down toward the alien tyrant, orange burgundy eyes focused on the alien. He could hear the sisters yelling something at him, but he ignored their warnings.

'_After going this far, there's no turning back_.' With the wind roaring in his ears, Nelius aimed a fist toward Pyron's face. Well, he tried to, but Pyron had dodged out of the way.

"You think that two-bit piece of metal had a chance of defeating me?" To this, Nelius couldn't help but chuckle. "I take it you find something so humorous!"

"I'm not bringing just my fists. I got something else up this sleeve. Donovan's fight against you got me thinking, and it was that fight which gave me a crazy, but viable idea."

"So, you think you've a ghost of a chance to defeat the perfect being! So then, show me what you've got!" Throwing his hands up, a ball of cosmic energy, the Sol Smasher, flew from his fingertips toward the young demon. In retaliation, Nelius brought his hands up, and deflected the projectile around himself. Pyron created the spheres of the Cosmic Disruption, and launched them toward the young demon.

Opening his wings, Nelius fired off shots from the insides of his wings, each shot canceling out Pyron's offensive.

"At first, I'd thought Donovan hadn't the power to effectively strike against you, but I ended up eating my own words. I could tell, even when he was holding back, he's still stronger than I am now." The shots from both fighters kicked up dust, which Pyron used to launch an attack, flying through the dust. Nelius dodged two punches, and flipped over the third punch, just barely dodging a fiery kick. Pyron threw a backblow punch and the demon backflipped away.

Changing into a fiery tornado, the Orbital Blaze, the cosmic being tore up the ground in a bid to attack Nelius. "You claim to have a way to fight me, yet you seem hesitant to make use of it." Nelius quickly dodged out of the way, putting some distance between them. "Perhaps you were bluffing in an attempt to extend your own life? How pathetic of you, now prepare for your end!" Pyron reared a hand back…

'_NOW!_' A voice in Nelius' head told him to act. '_This better work..._' He tightened his gauntlet weapons, then dashed toward Pyron, leaving behind a number of hazy afterimages in a conical shape, the Tiger Charge, version 2.

Expecting Nelius to appear behind him, Pyron threw a punch in that direction, hitting a hazy afterimage.

"What trickery is this?" Feeling a spark of energy to his left, he turned his attention to that direction, and saw something hurtling this way. "Fool. Why must I be bothered by this?" Seeing Nelius quickly hurtling toward him, he released a Sol Smasher, expecting him to dodge. What he didn't expect was for Nelius to fly through it. "What?"

"Phantom Fists!" Quickly touching ground and flipping forward, he brought his fists downward in an X-formation, cleaving through the alien tyrant. Pyron did little but laugh.

"Useless. Utterly useless." He turned around, ready to attack. "You see, your plan is useless."

"Wrong. I just got the last clue I needed."

"You fool. It is as I said, you bluff." Levelling a blast at the ground, Pyron put enough power behind it to utterly decimate most of the floor. Nelius quickly went skyward, just as Pyron had wished. "Now die, alongside all these weak fools!" Pyron followed, ready to end this once more.

'_All right, you guys, I hope that stuff you granted me holds out_.' Channeling all of his mana power into the Netherburst, since the suns Pyron created were sapping away what power would be naturally provided, Nelius put on an impressive burst of speed. He was so focused on reaching the upper atmosphere, that he didn't even notice the limiter band on his Shatter Gauntlet beginning to crack heavily. '_This one's for you, Donovan_.'

"And now you try to run, just as that vampire had? What cowardice!" The alien tyrant teleported right in front of Nelius. "You've nowhere else to run, boy."

"I think not. I was hoping you'd follow. I'm not in the mood to cause anymore collateral damage." Pyron closed in, shifting into a fiery wheel. Nelius quickly brought his wings up to shield himself from the attack, and, taking a page out of Demitri's fight, forcefully unfurled them, sending Pyron off-balance. The alien, however, had learned from this, and so teleported to a more advantageous spot, ready to impale Nelius on thin energy spikes.

Now sensing the alien tyrant, Nelius quickly made to dodge around and through the spikes, but overcompensated and, in trying to dodge several aimed for his chest, ended up with one going through his left eye. Even in the upper atmosphere, if you listened closely, you could almost hear something...

"I find your scream of pain delightful. Perhaps I shall give you a matching set!" The young demon clutched a hand to his injured eye, feeling the blood flow freely, even seeping in through the small crevasses in the gauntlet. Pyron got in close, intending to end the fight, but got one unpleasant surprise: Nelius, channeling newfound mana to his bloodied hand, socked the alien across his face, twice. "That... hurt... THAT HURT!"

"Not as much as what this will!" It's safe to say Nelius was pissed off beyond belief. So was Pyron. The cosmic being landed three punches and a kick, but was shocked to see Nelius still standing there, as if unfazed. "My turn!" Bringing his left hand down, he left a stinging trail across Pyron's chest.

"How! How are you doing this!" Pyron shifted into a fiery tornado, intent on killing the young demon. Nelius, in turn, dropped slightly, watching as Pyron passed over him. "Tell me! Where does this power come from? How have I never heard of this!"

"I'll do one better; I'll give you a first-hand demonstration!" Nelius delivered a pair of punches onto Pyron's chest, leaving behind two painful marks behind, but when the left fist connected, the limiter band shattered into pieces, as its once contained powers now freely flowed through the young demon. The tyrant attempted to counter, but Nelius blocked the kick, and made his own counter- by head-butting Pyron.

Pyron countered, getting his own face shot in.

Nelius continued the chain, flipping over a Sol Smasher and driving a foot into Pyron's face.

Pyron's turn. The alien landed a series of blows, ending with a heeldrop.

Back to Nelius, he recovered in time to avoid a fiery wheel, then transformed a wing into a chain-blade, then lashed out, slicing Pyron across the neck.

Grabbing Nelius by the neck, Pyron landed some free blows to his chest.

Nelius swung forward, landing a double foot in Pyron's face.

The alien tyrant landed a vicious blow to the back of Nelius' head, causing more blood to spill from his destroyed eye.

The young demon, dodging around another blow, performed a backflip kick, searing Pyron with another line of energy that almost bisected him.

"And here is the end." As Nelius came back up, Pyron grabbed him by the head, then detonated a vicious blast of energy right there. "It's over." Releasing what would've been remaining of his head, he expected to see the young demon fall to the planet and burn up. What he didn't expect, was to see the young demon still hovering there. "!"

"You forgot something..." Now covered in an age old demons' power, he reared his fist back as a frightening grin crept across his face. Even within his destroyed eye socket, you could see something within glowing.

'_! That face... impossible!_'

His fist flew upward, speeding forward and connecting with Pyron's abdomen. It didn't stop there; his fist broke through the initial resistance and literally cleaved the tyrant in two.

"AGGH-" Pyron's scream was the last thing he registered before his face was smashed into something unrecognizable. Being sucked into a micro-sized black hole at his center that not even light could escape, Pyron was being crushed by immense pressure. Of course, when pressure builds, there's only one way for it to go: outward. With one violently contained explosion, the alien being's power dispersed, and he was no more.

Exhausted, Nelius dispersed his own power, returning to normal. Almost immediately, his body began to convulse, overtaxed from using that much power, and he could taste his own blood coming up. He righted himself in time, to avoid falling back down to the planet and quickly placed a hand to what remained of his left eye, trying to contain the blood flow.

"That's... the end of that. Hopefully, he's not... coming back after that." Ah, but it wasn't quite the end. Pyron happened to leave behind one parting gift. Remember those suns he created? They are extensions of his power, after all, and with his life in danger, all five of them began to return to where Pyron was last: right where Nelius was floating. Seeing several lights heading toward him, the young demon looked downward to see five giant suns all hurtling toward him at high speeds. He knew he couldn't move away in time.

"Ah FU-" WHAM!

**End of Chapter 4**

Until Next Chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	5. InterChapter: The 9 Year Stretch

My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Paragraphs

Inter-chapter: The Nine-year stretch

With Pyron's defeat, the Human world was finally beginning to right itself. Since the cosmic being was no longer around to agitate the demons of Makai, the number of demon-related incidents began to drop sharply, but of course there were those few indiscriminate attacks here and there.

Oh, what was I doing during that time? Resting up, obviously.

Though I strongly suspected that something else had a hand in my victory over Pyron, I was just glad to have emerged alive from that battle. If that guy had managed to make it over to my universe, I strongly would've imagined that there wouldn't be anything left by the time I got back. My victory was short-lived, though, as the last remnants of his power, those suns, decided to crash into me, either out of spite or trying to return to their now non-existant source.

Yeah, ever have several hundred tons of solidified cosmic energy crash full-tilt into you? I'll confirm it, it hurts like a bitch! At that time, I was also completely exhausted, my own mana reserves sucked nearly dry, and even if I had the strength left to move out of the way, the resulting dispersion of power would've knocked me senseless either way. After all of that, I was surprised that I managed to land on solid ground before I blacked out.

When I eventually woke up, I found out several things, right then and there.

First off, I had been in limbo for about four to fave months as my body was working overtime to get me back up to speed. I found that out the hard way when I tried to move. I was hurting in several places, including some I didn't even know I had. From my legs all the way up to my wings, everything hurt; even trying to think hurt like hell, that's how burnt out I was. I was lucky enough to have landed on my back, so I didn't have to worry too much about my eye bleeding out while the blood coagulated.

Secondly, I didn't land in the human world. Yep, I landed in the Demon World, Makai itself right before I ended up going zombie. Man, was I lucky that nobody tried to turn me into lunch. As I was right now, anybody could've just walked right up to me and I would've basically been theirs to do with whatever they pleased... damn, that's a creepy thought.

As it turns out, demons here in this universe are way different than the ones I've seen back home. About the best way I can put it is that if there's someone out there with a particular phobia of something, be it spiders, lizards, birds, damn well near anything, there was a demon here who fit that description. From creatures that looked innocent enough to some that'd even give Majins a heart attack, if I bothered to try and describe each one I'd seen, this chapter'd have to be split into well over a hundred parts, and I know neither of us have that amount of time.

Anyway, once I was finally able to get moving again, the first thought that crossed my mind was getting some food into me. When I tried to ask one of the locals about where I could get some of the good stuff, he or she offered me this weird blue orb. I later found out that this was what a soul looked like in this realm. Looks a whole hell of a lot different compared to ones I saw back home. It was just as that ghoul back at the audience hall had said: the demons here eat souls, just like those something-Eaters from that other world. Needless to say, looking at the thing made my appetite quickly leave; I wanted some of the real stuff, and speaking of which, I found a small niche market about to go out of business. Hey, their loss, my gain.

Later on, as I wandered throughout this strange town of demons, I had apparently caught the eye of another demon: he was about seven feet tall, and decked out in armor that I strongly suspected only a Heavy Knight could've worn without suffering from any problems. He could easily tell I was lost, but he said something about me looking familiar, and that was what got me interested. He told me I resembled someone who'd left this realm decades ago, a halfling Succubus who wanted excitement, to discover other demon worlds. Hell, if she were alive today, she'd be overjoyed to know that other demon worlds exist: I'm living proof of it. He also saw that my left eye had been punctured by Pyron's attack, and offered me something to cover it up. This was going to take some getting used to.

Oh, and it turns out this guy was an Incubus demon. As it turns out, incubi demons around here don't all end up looking like Master Big Star back home; nearly half of them end up resembling something more like dragon/insect creatures over here, and as for how I found out how they get food when I eventually asked... I'm honestly glad I didn't turn out like them, regardless of what that machine said I was.

Not too long after that odd encounter, I soon discovered that Makai was in the middle of a huge war. Perfect. Turns out that Demitri Maximoff character wasn't the most well-liked noble of the Demon World. He'd made numerous attempts to take Makai for his own, and I just had to be in the area he decided to set his castle down at. He was here to stake his claim, and he had his target in mind: the dominant ruling house... Aensland, I think it was called.

Demitri was the first to appear, and now I could get a better look at him: slightly taller than what I was at the time, decked out in a Romanian-styled bodysuit, and his hair stood straight up. Oh, and he was a vampire, make all the jokes you want. The Aensland house ruler, Morrigan showed up next, and I could tell right off the bat she was a Succubus: if not from her suspicious bat-themed attire to the pair of bat wings on the sides of her head, then it was the aura she gave off. Being a demon myself, I could tell.

She apparently said something to him, possibly challenging him, and he accepted, flying in at an incredible speed. If anything, by the lazy way she fought against him, she was enjoying this. Most demons live for battle; I could tell she embodied that life. I noticed, above all else, her wings were able to take different forms, just like mine were. Either way, if those two wanted to fight, I wasn't intending to interfere, since I had plans to try to get back to the human world, and from there, back home.

**Year One**

With Demitri back in action, apparently the other noble houses of the Demon World were getting ready to rally against him, to set the stage for one hell of a war, but I didn't care.

Why's that? I discovered a way to travel back and forth from one world to the other. If they want to kill each other, go ahead; I'll be over here, trying to find a way back home. Anyway, over in Makai, I stumbled across some book written in the demon language. It about wrecked my brain doing it, but with some willing assistance I managed to translate a small part of it, enough to find out a gate spell that'd let me travel back and forth between the worlds. I doubt it'd work if I tried it back home; the incantation to pull it off was in an entirely different language, and considering the type of magic used over in this realm, it'd be too dangerous to try it elsewhere.

Now that I was back in the human world, it's time to get down to business. I knew that the human world would be a lot more peaceful, but there were still indiscriminate Darkstalker attacks here and there, and who better to take them out than another demon? Yeah, I know it sounds rather odd for me to try to get into work out in a place like this, but if I were to improve myself like I originally planned, being in the middle of a warzone would only be a mild help; see, since damn well near everyone's going to be fighting against one another over there, it'd be a lot easier on me to work my way back up over here, and instead of having a huge number to go up against, I'd be able to focus more on one thing at a time.

Not too long after signing up to act as a freelance bounty hunter here, I got my first case. According to the report, there'd been some monster east of where I currently was who'd been behind a string of childnappings. All they wanted was for me to go in, kill the thing, then bring its body back as evidence. So, armed with another axe I found in Makai, off I went.

Arriving at the town in question, I got some first-hand testimonies that the monster in question was some sort of wolf demon. They told me that he was said to live further up in the mountainous areas, so I decided to check that location out first, and I was quite surprised as what I found.

I found our wolf-man, and the kids in question, but it was a far cry from what the report said. From what I could gather from them, the man hadn't abducted the children, they willingly followed him, largely due to the fact that ever since his animalistic side ran wild due to Pyron's arrival, the adults of the town feared and hated him. Touched by their kindness, the man, Talbain, I think they all called him, had decided to teach them his self-created style of martial arts, largely as a means of self defense.

Now I felt cheated, being given a false claim to a bounty written up by paranoid people who never thought to give the man a second chance. I was ready to go and bite the head off of whoever came up with this, but seeing Talbain work with the children gave me a different idea. Using some fire magic and some spare junk laying around the area, I made it look like I'd defeated the "Wolf-demon", but he tried to take us with him, causing a large explosion. The kids were all too happy to play along, calling me stuff like "their savior" and "the hero".

Yeah, it sounds like the dirtiest trick alive, to claim the reward without actually doing anything, but I think it's far worse to write up false reports without fully understanding the situation. It was exactly like the Ivoire cases I'd heard about; ostracizing someone else because everyone else is too much of a asshole to try to understand them. Either way, I got my cash, Talbain goes free, and the kids still get their teacher to help them along in life. They just had to relocate slightly, but all in all, it worked out fine.

**Year Three**

I have to hand it to that Maximoff guy, he doesn't give up.

Even with the fact that he was outnumbered by the other Noble Houses of Makai, he was still kicking asses and taking names. From what I'd heard on another visit, he already managed to get two of the other houses to back down from the fight, and even forced a third one into an alliance with him. I'd love to see how he does diplomacy.

Back over here in the Human World, I found myself in a dilemma. Ever since Pyron spiked my left eye, I'd guessed that the healing spells I'd been using on it would've saved it, but I should have known better than that. When I eventually removed that eyepatch the one demon back in Makai... Goros, I think his name was, gave me, all that remained in my left eyesocket was a bloody, mangled mess of an eye, held together only by my dried blood. I was now certain all of the nerves had been shot, meaning I'd never be able to naturally see out of it again, which now left me with a big blind spot on my left side. Oh sure, I heard of someone who lost an eye and an arm, but was still an effective fighter, and even someone who was completely blind but could fight alongside the best of them, but at this point in time I don't have the skills necessaty to counter this. Unable to think of anything on my own, and the doctors in this dimension being close to useless, I eventually headed back to Makai to see if anyone there had any ideas.

My plan paid off. Some sort of a demon mystic over there told me of a way I could see out of my destroyed eye: turns out that when Pyron's suns crashed into me after I killed him, I had gained some of his powers that had been imparted into those suns, and one of those powers let me essentially trade in my wrecked eye for a new one. The catch was, the new one I received would be made of pure energy, and even though I'd be granted even stronger sight, I'd have to make sure I didn't get hit by too strong of an energy or magic attack, otherwise, it'd fizzle out and leave me half-blind again. That's the risk I'd have to take for putting a fireball in place of my eye; I had to take on the weakness I took advantage of to defeat Pyron. Though it took me about another two to three months, I finally got something to work, and managed to conjure up an eyeball-substitute that didn't risk frying my skull. Hell, the scariest part of it all was shoving it into my now empty eye socket while trying to make sure I didn't bleed out or unnecessarily burn myself in the process.

The challenge now was finding a way to make sure that even if I got hit with some sort of energy attack, be it demonic power or magic, I wouldn't lose the sight granted, or if I did, I'd be able to regain it quick enough to eliminate any blind spots. The end result for the moment came down to placing a Magic Barrier spell over the eyepatch Goros gave me. It's not the most reliable solution, but it'll have to work for now, until I return home. From what I'd heard, the humans of my dimension had been working on biomechanical engineering so effective, it was near impossible to tell you had a piece of machinery in your eyesocket.

Cases came and went, but there wasn't anything too remarkable about them. I did get to travel to several of the places Pyron had been sacking, and got to see first-hand the destruction he'd wrought, all in the name of a good fight. I'm not above wanting a good match now and then, but his methods went too far.

Speaking of a good fight, I ended up getting one when I wandered too far into an area that had been declared "off limits" in Makai. I soon found out why it got that status: damn place was some inter-dimensional warp zone that ended up spitting me out wherever it damn well pleased. It didn't bring me any closer to home, but the end result was the same: I'd end up somewhere, have to fight to survive. Though, I did get to meet the odd ensemble here and there.

And by odd, I mean out of each world I ended up at, I somehow managed to keep running into people nearly in a similar predicament as my own: someone trying to do their own thing, but there were others seemingly hell bent on interfering with them. Something tells me I haven't even seen the half of them yet... but that's another story.

**Year Five **

Boy, did Makai get the biggest bombshell dropped on them.

Morrigan had made the decision to rule Makai alongside Demitri. You heard that right, both the Aensland and Maximoff house rulers were ruling Makai together in a joint effort. It surprised me as well, but with the fact that I'm an out of dimension guy here, I really can't judge her on her decision. She's got a method to her madness, that's all I can say.

Back here in the human world, I was pretty quickly moving up in life. With the fact that there were still troublemakers in the world, be they human or demon, the market for people with skills like mine was still fresh with opportunities, and I was still in business. Speaking of business, I got another case; this time, it was to protect a famous musical star while she was on tour. Hell if I could figure out why a vigilante's skills like my own were needed, but she'd be stopping in the area within the week.

When I got there, to see whose ass it was I'd have to cover, I was pleasantly surprised. Turns out my case subject, Felicia, was the same catwoman I'd seen back at that concert hall some years back. It may have been due to her not being human, but what I couldn't understand was why anyone would want to hurt her. Those who'd attended her previous concerts said she was a hell of a good singer, and actually being there, I could back those statements up. She was also traveling with a troupe of other cat-women much like herself, and all throughout Felicia's performance I could swear one of them was giving me the evil eye, trying to stare several holes into my brain.

But, right on cue, I spotted our troublemakers close to half an hour into the performance: several ruffians who were part of a anti-Darkstalker campaign being perpetrated by some know-nothings. Get your facts straight, dumbasses. From the look of things, they intended to try the same shit those monks did back at the concert hall. If not for the fact that ghoul took their souls, I'd have sworn they were the same guys.

Another easy case: thanks to some new tricks I'd been experimenting with, I literally got the drop on most of them before they could cause any trouble. The extra inches I'd grown over the years helped put me over six and a half feet tall, and that was enough to scare off three of them that had gotten away, though the leader of them thought he could take me on.

Dead wrong, sucker. With thanks to some of the moves I'd picked up along my travels, including some I saw Talbain pull off during my first case, I put him down before he even had a chance. The little punks were carted off to do hard time, I received my payment, and still got to enjoy the concert.

Before I ended up leaving to go take on the next case, Felicia pulled me aside to say thanks. Then, just as I was about to go, the one who I imagine was trying to bore several holes into my skull during the concert came up and apologized to me for her rather cold behavior earlier. Just as I had imagined earlier, there'd been several people trying to kill her just for being who she was, and that thought actually got me pissed.

**Year Seven **

Restoration and clean up efforts were close to completion for most of the towns Pyron had been ransacking in his attempt to draw out the strongest of the Dark, and the robots that had been activated due to this. With the fact that cases were getting fewer and fewer around this time, I decided now would be a great time to get some rest.

Unfortunately, what rest I did get was constantly interrupted by this weird voice that comes out of nowhere. It keeps going on about something involving "awakening", "releasing my full potential" and "restoring my true name." I'm thinking it was due to that last meal I ate; must not have been fully cooked.

Either way, while I was going through the town that Demitri's castle once inhabited, I happened to notice scrap pieces of machinery here and there, as if they'd been overlooked. I recognized them as those machines that had been flying around before Pyron reared his ugly mug. Looking at them now, I can see that the most of them are still in a workable condition.

I'll admit, I'm no technological wizard, but the wheels in my head began turning: if these machines' parts were carefully reassembled, we might have quite the interesting invention on our hands. It's worth a shot, but I'm going to need some help... and I think I know where to look.

**End of the Inter-Chapter **

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	6. Chapter 5

My Calling: Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Paragraphs

Chapter 5: Ressurection

"All right, fire away."

The sound of gunshots rang out, followed by the sounds of metal clashing on metal. Not too soon afterwards, several high caliber rifles fired off, immediately followed by the explosion of grenades. Then, silence.

"OK, all the targeting systems are calibrated. Get the target set."

With a click, a young man in his mid-twenties with long brown hair coming down to cover his eyes flicked a small switch on a pair of metallic gauntlets before handing them over to a middle-aged man, who promptly placed them on a mounted crash-test dummy.

"Clear the area, we're ready to begin." Once the area was clear, the command was given. "3...2...1... Fire away." Rocket Launchers, high-focus laser beams, and artillery cannons fired off, all hitting a technological shield. Explosions, laser sounds and heavy metal collided into one ear-bleedingly loud sound. As the dust cleared, it was revealed that the dummy was still standing upright, without a single scratch on its body, and the gloves were radiating a force field that stopped the attacks cold. A whistle of amazement came from the lead scientist.

"Not even one lost bit of power... Intriguing. Switching test machines over to combat mode."

Once again, the young man at the site took the gauntlets and slid them on his hands, adjusting them to fit, then waited for the machines to activate.

"Switch complete. Executing program test number 3. Do be careful out there, sir."

"Go for it." All at once, the robots charged the seven-foot tall young man, who simply raised his hands, pointed the palms inward, then held them outward toward the machines. The machines were frozen in place, being held back by a blue-green rectangular field that was emitting several hundred watts of voltage, more than enough to freeze the robots' systems. With these ones down for the count, another set activated and charged in. This time, the index fingers on each hand were held out. The left hand's finger shot out an icy beam that froze the joints of several of the bots in their places. As a third set moved in while the second broke free, the right hand's index finger generated a 45-centimeter blade of electrical energy, which was used to cut down the machines.

The fourth set of test robots acted like gunfighters, attacking from a distance. While the left hand was used to block the incoming volley of bullets with a sheld, the right hand's palm was held outward, and from the center of the hand shot out a pair of plasmatic spheres, which promptly caught up to the group and exploded, heavily damaging the machines, if they weren't outright destroyed. A fifth set of gunners appeared, and this time the fingers on both gauntlets changed into machine gun turrets, firing high-caliber energy shells that tore through the test machines.

"Thank you, Mr. Raoul. That'll be quite enough for today." The machines were quickly swept up as the young man exited the test facility, heading over to meet with one of the scientists. "The results from these pieces you've brought us are astounding. If we had a complete model, we'd be able to figure out even more."

"Considering that they all went into hiding, it's no surprise that a complete model's hard to come by." Following the end of Pyron, the Huitzil robots went into a dormant state, retreating to an unknown location, possibly waiting for another target like Pyron to rise up again. Only the parts of the decimated machines remained intact, and several pieces were brought back for testing. Of them, the hand and head units were most valuable.

"With a little more testing, we should be able to figure out the full extent of what these units are capable of."

"Progress is always a good thing. Well, until next time, then?"

"Until next time. While you're on your way out, make sure you get some rest, Mr. Raoul. We can't have one of our leads fainting on us."

"As much as I'd like to say '_no rest for the wicked_', you've got a good point." With that, the one called Mr. Raoul went to leave the facility.

"Oh, Mr. Raoul, hold up." It was a woman who was in charge of the security surrounding the research facility. "You know that even with proper clearance it's risky to just walk out the front door." She was surprised when a smile crept across his face.

"No worries, then. I'm taking the back way out."

"Wait, what?"

"While I was waiting for last week's results to come back, I found a little pathway out back. Nobody else aside from myself has made use of it. It's how I've been getting back and forth from here to where I need to go." With that, the scientist motioned for her to follow as he walked back through the facility, passing by several other scientists and guards before reaching the back exit.

"Ah, I see. I'll have to post some people to keep an eye out here as well."

"You do that. Meanwhile, I'm on my way out." He walked a good distance away from the facility, making sure he was completely out of sight before closing his visible eye and shaking his head, causing his hair color to change from a light brown to a much darker color with red streaks as it also revealed an bandage patch over the left eye. As he opened his right eye, it changed from a dark brown color to his standard orange. With a grin to put the Devil to shame, Nelius took a look at his new prize: a pair of shiny new gauntlets, courtesy of Huitzil parts and human ingenuity.

'_Here's the real reason of how humans continue to live. Not much strength to start with, but an amazing intellect and ability to adapt_.' He knew that his wings would protect him in certain situations, but it didn't hurt to have a secondary form of defense. '_I know technology here isn't as advanced as back home, but I should take some of these to the TDI base when I manage to get back. They'd have a field day with this stuff_.' He looked up toward one of the trees nearby, a frown replacing his grin as he remembered just where he was. '_If I can ever get back home, that is._.' Deciding to take a seat underneath the tree, he stared off into the sky. '_Still, how did I get here in the first place... and can I find a way to reverse the process and get back home?_' He began thinking back to when he first showed up in this world. '_Let's see, it was after I'd grabbed that green rock from Etna's room... the only thing I can think of is that it was attracted to something in this realm, pulling me through with it. But since I don't have anything here associated with back home, I can't just use the same trick...uggghhh, SHIT._' He was starting to get frustrated with this. "Am I gonna be stuck around here forever?"

_All souls, return unto one… worthy ones rejoice, and return!_

'_The hell was that?_' Nelius looked around, trying to find the source of that voice.

_All shall become one once more!_

"Oh not again! Not now!" Nelius turned around to see the world seemingly meltling all around him, and he felt like he was being flung through another dimensional rift. When said trip finally ended, the first thing Nelius had noticed was, after a long sense of disorientation…

"Am I back in the demon world?" The second thing he noticed was that he seemed to be in the middle of a forest or some kind of jungle. There was an abundance of trees, but the most of them appeared to be wilting, almost malnourished. "No... something's way off. This place looks like it's dying. I can hardly sense any spiritual energy around here..." Some of the plant life leaned more toward the kind found in jungle environments, and one of them was snacking on a reptile…

"Wait, what the?" Seriously, one of the plants had teeth and was lazily chewing on a reptilian creature that had wandered too close. A second plant of the same ilk began chewing on the reptile's tail. "A Venus Flytrap that ain't." He'd have made another snide remark, but a droning sound caught his attention.

Looking skyward, Nelius saw what amounted to a cloud, no, a maelstrom of bees the size of footballs blotting out whatever source of visible light was available. With what sounded much like an excited buzz, the horde of stinging insects made a dive for the demon. Dodging to the side as several of them hit a tree, he watched as the tree began to liquify and several more excitedly gathered around the former tree.

"Great, and here I am without my bug spray. Oh well, a bug zapper's much quicker!" Holding his palms outward, a thin sheet of electricity radiated outward from both of his palms, shocking and frying many of the bees who'd gotten too close. Deciding on a pincer tactic, the bees split into three groups, each attacking from the sides and behind.

"A pincer, huh? Hope you bugs are fond of barbecue!" Bringing his arms inward, he felt his body starting to heat up as the bees closed in, ready to begin a stinging assault. In a fast flash of light, a pillar of tornado-fuled fire rose from beneath Nelius' feet, causing many of the bees to fry, warning the others to stay away. Finding themselves outmatched, they had no choice but to fall back, for the moment. As the fire died down, wisps of smoke emanated from all over his body, and his breathing was a bit heavy. "Even with the power dialed back, there's still the chance of backfire. Gotta work on this some more." Getting to his feet, he heard the droning sound again, only, it sounded a hell of a lot louder, and much deeper this time.

This time, instead of a cloud of bees filling the sky, it was something akin to a mobile hornet's nest.

"That's not good." The hexagonal openings dotting the nest were easily large enough to allow several human-sized objects to flow in and out, and speaking of which, something was exiting the nest. The approaching figure, though humanoid in size, looked more akin to an actual… bee-person. "Looks nothing like the ones I'd seen in that Netherworld next door to Priere's." From the figure of said character, mostly its chest, you could tell it was female (at least by humanoid standards), but had the abdomen and wings of a bee, right down to the dangerous stinger on her backside. Her head hung downward, her "gaze" toward the ground, as she took note of this attacker in her grounds.

"I can smell... A strong soul..." Something that could be considered a tongue ran along the edges of her lips. "Finally, I may feed again." Without warning, she sped toward him, her arm extending into a limb similar to a bee's, except the tips of her arm looked painfully sharp.

Nelius used an arm to deflect the blow, and had to sidestep a knee to the gut, though it more accurately would've been a spike _through_ his gut. Raising her hands, two bees flew over and deposited a sticky substance similar to human world raw honey, and she expanded it into a bubble of honey, which she hurled at him. Jumping over the sphere, he saw it explode into a sticky mess of goo on one of the trees. "Dry cleaning'd never cover that stain."

Hearing something whistling through the air at high speeds toward him, Nelius turned his attention to his opponent only to receive a gigantic launched bee stinger to the gut, which sent him sailing through the trees until he wound up impaled.

"Agh, motherfu- son of a bitch!" Using one hand to brace himself against the tree, he forcefully yanked the stinger out and tossed it before he met the same fate as the tree from earlier. "That's what I get for becoming too sloppy." Placing one hand to his damaged abdomen, he felt his own blood run through and into his gauntlets again, and remembers the feeling as he focused a quick healing spell onto his abdomen, mixing in some fire to sear the wound shut. Knowing it was time to get serious, his wings, now with orange tips of energy flowing along them, formed up from the lab coat he'd been wearing, and his clothing then shifted into a more battle appropriate attire, consisting of a dark colored duster, a blue denim longcoat, and slacks that came down to cover his pair of Falcon Shoes. "Looks like it's time to fight for real. Come get some."

He dropped to the ground, and the fight was on. She sped toward him, intending to impale him on her knee-stinger again, but he had other plans. As she kicked out toward his head, he ducked beneath her attack, jammed his left foot into her solar plexus, lifted her up and slammed her to the ground.

Getting to her feet, the bee woman shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind. Forcing her hands out in front of her, she morphed her hands into a beehive, sending out a small swarm of bees. In response, Nelius pulled out the old gun he found on Brad's ship long ago, and fired off five shots, each one hitting and disabling one of the bees. Putting the weapon away, he saw her diving toward him, stinger first. Cracking his knuckles, he caught her by the stinger, and used his leverage to swing her into one of the trees, causing it to splinter as she was thrown through it. As soon as she got back on her feet, she met a tree trunk to her face as Nelius took a solid hold and threw it like a javelin, almost wincing as her face was planted into the ground from the sheer force of his attack.

"Damn, you're an energetic one." He couldn't help but feel amused as she pulled herself out of the ground and got to her feet again. "I know I prefer my opponents persistent, but this is going no- !" Sparing a glance behind himself, he sidestepped in time to avoid a spirit projectile that smacked into the bee woman in the face and forcefully dragged her into a shaded area of the soul forest. The sounds of slashing and hacking became apparent, and the killer withdrew from the shade.

"So, you still live, demon child." Crimson armor and a blood-soaked katana shone in the now fading light. The torso of the armor had a demon's face. "No, no longer a child. Now you're a full demon, a true Darkstalker." A blood-red vapor began to eminate from the weapon.

"How in the hell? I thought I destroyed you." The armor couldn't help but laugh.

"You? Kill me? A ridiculous idea. My existance is tied to the evil in the hearts of humanity. So long as that evil persists, I am immortal!" The armor tossed the nearly dead bee woman away, obviously done with her. "You, on the other hand, lack such an advantage. Allow me to demonstrate!" Bishamon dashed forward, his katana poised to cleave Nelius in two.

"I think not!" Grabbing his new axe from out of nowhere, Nelius deflected the blow, and began matching the armor move for move. "Boy, doesn't this take me back?" A low sweep, a high swing, wherever the katana would try to strike, the axe would follow and deflect the blow. On and on, this continued neither one willing to give up. Without warning, the armor's "mouth" opened up, revealing a spirit hand that grabbed Nelius and began squeezing him, nearly crushing several of his bones, including his ribs.

"See? I am full of new tricks." Bishamon taunted as he squeezed Nelius.

"Hehe. Funny you should say that, so am I!" One of his wings formed into a blunted fist that shot forward, almost knocking the helmet off the armor and Bishamon off-balance, causing the armor spirit to release his grip on Nelius. "Shit, he's way stronger than last time. Better stop pissing around." Trying to catch his breath as he stretched himself out to alleviate the pain, he knew that he had to end this fight pretty quickly, or else things would turn ugly. Tightening his grip on his weapon, Nelius shot forward and brought the axe down on the demon samurai's head. Without hesitation, he brought the axe's head back up, smashing it into Bishamon's chin as he then jumped up, driving the axe into the top of the helmet like a pogo stick. Now landing behind Bishamon, Nelius brought the axe down in a diagonal slash across the back of the armor, then quickly spun around, smacking Bishamon in the side with the flat of the axe head, but he didn't stop there. Instead, he began spinning around, the demon samurai caught up with him, and once he built up enough speed, he sent the living armor flying upward. Almost immediately, Nelius jumped up after him, and once he'd gotten level with the living armor, he positioned himself for an overhead blow and took it, slamming Bishamon into the ground. (Violent Storm)

"That won't be enough!" Bishamon was already back on his feet, and as soon as Nelius landed, the demon samurai was closing in. Summoning two small spirits, he sent them flying at Nelius, intending to use them to trap him long enough for the demon samurai to finish closing the distance.

"Fine, how about this!" Nelius threw a blast of wind magic at the spirits, dissipating them.

"It won't do you any good." Now that he was close enough, Bishamon flipped forward, trying his damnest to cleave Nelius in two. When he landed as the katana missed it mark, he wasted no time in trying to attack again, going for a rising slash. Though Nelius leaned back far enough to avoid the blade, he inadvertently put himself in another dangerous position, as he carelessly tripped over something on the ground, leaving him open. "Now it ends!" Seizing the opportunity, Bishamon leapt into the air again, this time positioning his katana for a downward strike, this time aiming for Nelius' heart.

"Don't think so." Using his wings as a springboard, he narrowly avoided being skewered again and launched himself feet first at Bishamon, striking him in the face once more and sending him flying upward. Launching himself upward through the use of his wings, once he got level with the samurai, he immediately initiated an extremely fast string of attacks that left his opponent spinning. Now above him, Nelius grabbed by the shoulders, and after a few forward revolutions in the air, hurled Bishamon back down to the ground.

Slamming into the ground with a shattering impact, Bishamon found his armor once again cracked in several places as Nelius' foot struck true, right on the armor's teeth (King of Beasts).

"Damn you!" He swore loudly as he forced himself to his feet. The cracks in his armor were easily pronounced. "Where did you acquire such strength? How do you fight against these odds?" Nelius was silent. "Start talking!"

"That is a question you shall never get the answer to, Bishamon." Standing a small way away was a man of possible Japanese descent. He was dressed in blue and white robes, and carried a staff with weighted rings interlocked onto one large ring. "I have finally found you. I think it's time I paid you back for what you've done."

"Oboro! You dared to follow me into this realm, you powerless fool!" Bishamon positioned his blade, Kien, ready for the kill. "Now, it will end!" He ran straight toward the man...

"Unfortunately, you're only half right. It will end, but for you." Oboro began chanting in his native tongue, causing the armor to lock up. With a final chilling groan, right before the katana could land a hit, the armor's eyes lost their glow, and clattered to the ground. Nelius hesitantly approached the pile of armor.

"What the hell was that?"

"That was Hannya, the cursed armor and Kien, the blade that drinks blood." Oboro cautiously handled Kien's sheath, attaching it to his hip. "I first saw this armor in an antique shop, but it had possessed my mind, forcing me to assault the storeowner and take the armor for my own. I am just one among many who have fallen prey to its powers." He then lifted Kien and sheathed it. "Despite my wife's begging, I ignored her and donned the armor, and my ruthless slaughtering of humanity began. Over the countless years, humans and dark ones alike fell to this cursed sword, their blood and souls fueling my cursed existence." He turned toward a different direction. "And yet, even though it is sealed now, as long as evil exists in the hearts of humans and dark ones, this dreadful power will always return in the form of a stronger, crueler Hannya."

"Something tells me you're not here just to stop that armor."

"Quite perceptive of you. Before I am able to return home, to my beloved Orin, I have one final task, one I promised nine years back. There was a man who helped to free me from the armor's bonds, and wherever he went, a young girl would follow." Only one man fit that description in Nelius' mind. "He is filled with determination and self-sacrifice, but his mind and heart have become darkened, and he is set upon a path that may lead to his own self-destruction. I know she is searching for him, knowing of the dangers of seeking him out…"

"Wait. How is he that far gone? What happened to him?"

"It is the evil powers of this realm, drawing out the repressed desires within all." As he walked off, Oboro offered his last piece of advice. "Never lose sight of what you seek. This realm can make even the stoutest of warriors lose to his inner demons."

"You be careful yourself." Nelius looked elsewhere. "Before I start contemplating, I need to figure out where the hell I am, and if I can leave." Noticing that both the hive and Oboro were gone already, he blanched. "If I can find my way out of this ass-backwards place." Almost at once, reality shifted around him once again. "It was something I said, wasn't it!" The realm warped and twisted around, dumping Nelius at what appeared to be the side of a building. Yes, he was standing on the side of a high rise building, which looked somewhat similar to an apartment complex. "Whoa... someone's got a real twisted sense of humor." Looking further ahead, he saw someone else in the same predicament as himself.

It was a small child with brown hair, dressed in a grey-brown t-shirt and matching pants. You could tell he was disoriented, and possibly frightened at how high up he was.

"Hey kid, you all right?" Nelius went over to see how the kid was doing, but gunfire stopped him, as something appeared out of the distance. "Another one of those bots? I thought those things went into dormancy years ago." Giving no pause, the machine went on the attack, morphing its arm into a spiked disc. The arm was launched, and Nelius blocked the attack with a magically-reinforced wing. "Annoying rustbucket." Nelius fired a stronger blast of wind magic, sending the Huitzil reeling backwards. He went to attack...

"Wait! Stop!" The young child intervened, getting between the demon and the machine. "Leave him alone!" Nelius skidded to a stop.

"What the- you outta your mind?" Why was this human kid defending the Huitzil? Didn't he know what this thing was capable of?

"He thought you were gonna hurt me, so he attacked. Don't fight anymore." This was a surprise. As the Huitzil got to its feet, the young boy rushed over. "Phobos, you all right?"

"Some damage has been sustained, but auto-repair functions can cover it." The machine responded. "Are you in a stable condition?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. He was trying to help me. Don't fight him." Now Nelius had seen everything. One of the killer robots that terrorized the world just under a decade ago was protecting this child from harm?

"How'd a kid like you end up all the way out here? For that matter, how'd you convince that-" '_What were they called again... oh yeah_.' "-Huitzil to help you?"

"Dunno. I just found him about two years ago in this ruin. He woke up, and has been a friend to me ever since. But, I don't know how I ended up here." Before any other conversation could be struck up, the world began to warp once more. "Not again!"

**MAKAI! **

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	7. Chapter 6

My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**MAKAI!** Separates Paragraphs

Chapter 6: Old faces, new again

"Now where am I?" After yet another random warp, Nelius found himself in yet another unidentifiable place. "For that matter, where's that kid?" He looked around, but all he could see was that he was in what appeared to be some kind of throne room. "Lights are on, but nobody's home."

"Someone dares to enter my domain." Nelius turned around to see one very unhappy castle master. "I don't recall my castle being open to the public, especially to outsider demons."

"Yeah, and you're not exactly the nicest sight either, Maximoff. Even while jointly ruling Makai, you're still an ass."

"You may find it best to leave my castle on your own terms, before I remove you my way."

"And if I tell you to go screw yourself? You're not exactly in the position to be making demands yourself. Far as I know, we're all here by the order of some nutcase."

"You can tell me whatever you want, it changes nothing. And as for this dimension's lord, he's as good as dead."

"Depends on who gets to him first: it could be you, me, or whoever else he or she's decided to bring along for the ride as well." Nelius turned around and went to jump out the window...

"Hold just a moment, outsider."

"First you want me to leave, now you're telling me to stay? Make up your mind, Maximoff."

"Tell me, where did you acquire that axe?"

"Oh, this? Some demon gave it to me eight years ago. Thing's saved me more times than I can bother to count."

"That weapon happened to be in my possession prior to its disappearance."

"Really? I never imagined you to be one who'd use this. Personally, it fits me better."

"It belonged to a previous head of the house, but that's irrelevant. Hand it over."

"Like I said, if I refuse?" Demitri sped in, aiming a fist toward Nelius. "OK, if that's how you want to play." Blocking the punch, he had to jump over a foot sweep, but nearly had his face become a landing zone for Demitri's foot. The vampire launched a fireblast toward the demon, who simply deflected it. This, however, gave Demitri an window of opportunity to strike, jumping high above Nelius and curling his cape around himself, now intent on spearing the demon. Nelius, in turn, blocked the attack with his wings, then unfurled and launched a blast of wind magic toward Demitri. The vampire, obviously, gave a casual deflection, knocking the spell right out the window.

"To think, this is the same child who killed the alien where I couldn't." Demitri had become a cyclone of demonic power, speeding toward Nelius. "I'm not sure wether I should call this an opportunity or shameful."

"Yeah, sometimes I think it wasn't me who pulled that off." Caught slightly off-guard, Nelius took the hit, but recovered, jumping back before launching another wind blast. Demitri jumped over the blast, only to get hit from behind as the spell hit the floor and became a small tornado.

"Chaos Flare!" Throwing a much stronger blast of fire, Demitri was about ready to end this. Giving no pause, he transformed into his demonic form and launched his signature swarm of fiery bats at Nelius. As he'd expected, the demon jumped over the fire blast. What he hadn't expected, was for Nelius to dodge through the bats and go speeding straight towards him. As soon as he landed a kick to the vampire, Demitri hovered up and grabbed him by the neck, crushing his windpipe. "You've caused enough trouble."

"I haven't even... started, fangface!" Pulling back slightly, he then forced himself forward, crashing his skull into Demitri's. The resounding CRACK was enough for Demitri to let go, at which point Nelius began to rub his offended neck. "Not as bad as that guy who registers four tons, but still...Damn."

"You..." Needless of me to point this out, but I will anyway: Demitri was pissed. "Making me have to fight like this..."

"Oh? Last I checked, you're the one who started it." That probably wasn't the right thing to say, as Demitri went on the attack once again. He aimed a series of strong blows at Nelius, who blocked them with his wings, but wasn't watching out for the foot sweep. He quickly rolled out of the way as Demitri's foot came down, leaving a small crater where his head would have been. Getting to his feet, he bounced another fireblast away, then got an idea. As Demitri attempted his signature right hook, Nelius did a quick jump backwards, then almost immediately sped forward, nailing the vampire in the chest with a wind-reinforced punch and sending him flying.

"Not bad, for an outsider demon." Demitri had righted himself from the attack and was brought himself to a stop. "No wonder that Aensland knight held interest in you."

"Huh?" '_Who's he talking about?_' Before the fight could resume, the world around them began to shift and waver once more. "Aww, just as it was getting good!"

**The next dropoff **

"I get the feeling I'm going to be doing this a whole lot." Picking himself off of the ground, Nelius took a look at where he was now. He appeared to be standing behind some sort of castle, and there was a fountain formed by skulls nearby. "This place looks familiar, but from where..."

"Play with me?" A new voice startled Nelius, forcing him to spin around. Standing there, giving him the most innocent gaze ever, was what appeared to be a miniature Morrigan. Indeed, she looked much like a younger Morrigan, but had a red-colored outfit, wings and eyes matching in color, and short-cut lavender hair. "Will you... play with me?"

'_She has to be a Succubus; there's no denying it_.' This got Nelius deciding to play it cautious for the moment. '_Has to be related to Morrigan. Maybe her little sister or something?_'

"Haha... you have such nice eyes... just like that kitty." Now she started giving him a odd, intense gaze. "Yes... just like that kittygirl."

'_Huh? Catgirl? She talking about Felicia?_' He didn't get a chance to question her, as she went on the attack. She formed a wing around her arm, transforming it into a drill as she flew in towards him. Instinctively, he brought a wing up to deflect the attack, then initiated a foot sweep. The Mini-Morrigan, if we can call her such, jumped over the sweep and went to plant a foot in his face. He caught her foot in his hand, tossing her away. From her landing spot, she tried to throw a magic blast at him- but, about halfway through its path, it fizzled out.

"Oops. I guess it still needs work...!" Distracted by her magic's fizzle, she looked up in time to receive a chunk of ice to her face, sending her reeling. "Hey! That wasn't very nice!"

"Never said I had to be." He made one big mistake in saying that. With that statement, the miniature Morrigan morphed one of her wings into a bow. Morphing the other into a giant hand, she grabbed a nearby pillar, and nocked it into the bow.

"Bye bye!" She pulled back and released, sending the pillar flying through the air as a makeshift arrow.

"Oh crap!" Reacting instinctively, he reared a hand back and punched the pillar, cracking it in half and sending both halves flying past him. "Guess you're not playing nice."

"Never said I was going to." She basically threw his own words back at him. Nelius gave a derisive snort.

"Well, now that we've established that point... Try this!" Forming a wind spell in his right hand and a fire spell in the left, he clasped both hands together, then focused his palms outward, sending a horizontal tornado of flame at the little succubus. Bringing her own wings up, she formed a protective shell around herself, diverting the flames around her. As soon as the flames died down, she unfurled and went on the attack.

"Shining Blade!" Hardening her right wing, she turned around and jumped at an angle towards him, intending to slice him with that wing. He quickly leaned back to avoid the attack, but before she would even land on the ground, she teleported slightly closer to him and tried again. He hadn't anticipated this, and ended up with his coat and shirt sliced open. When she tried for a third attempt, he wised up to her strategy, and just as she appeared for the third time, he reached out, grabbed her by the neck, and, pulling a 180, threw her towards the wall of the castle. She immediately recovered from the throw and landed safely. Giving no pause, she dashed back in, jumping upwards and aiming a kick towards his head, but she'd wrapped a wing around that foot, turning it into an axhead.

"Oh hell no!" Bringing his right hand up, he activated the barrier grid, stopping her attack cold. Acting purely on instinct, he brought his other hand back and formed a wind spell. Focusing it on her midsection, he fired, blowing her across the area and giving him time to plan his next attack...

Well, that's what he wanted to happen. Instead, she jumped away as soon as she saw him ready the spell.

"You're not getting me with that one..." She said it in such a singsong tone, as if mocking him.

"All right, how about this?" Instantly, he brought his left hand forward, throwing out a pair of spiraling plasma spheres. Once they were close enough, they detonated, lashing out at her with tendrils of energy. Stepping backwards to avoid the plasma, she jumped over them and aimed for Nelius, this time focusing her wings towards her arms, turning them into a gigantic hammer as she imagined him being a pesky nail. Bringing an arm up to stop the hammer, he actually felt himself being pushed into the ground by the sheer force of the attack. '_Damn... OK, two can play at this_.' In retaliation, he gave a great heave, throwing her off and allowing him to counter. Bringing his wings up to act as a shield, he lifted into the air and, with the assistance of a Giga Wind spell, shot towards her like a rocket. He slammed right into her, sending the little succubus flying. Landing, he waited for her to come back down... but she didn't. Instead, she took off towards another area. "Oh, now she's running off?" He made to go after her, except the area started to waver again. "I'm sensing a pattern here..."

**Where's he now? **

"At least I'm still standing upright this time." Shaking off the sense of disorientation, Nelius found himself at what appeared to have been some sort of train, if it could be called such; there was a purple eyeball on the front of the engine car, a mouth both on the side of the car and up top as a smokestack, and the conductor was a skeleton whom was smoking a cigar. "Oh, Mr. Osbourne, we've recovered your ride."

"Welcome to the Iron Horse, kid. I take the worthy to see the big boss. Hop on." Shrugging, Nelius got on board. The interior of the car he got into looked rather threadbare, as if it hadn't been used or maintained in centuries. Before he could point this out to the conductor, the train shuddered before moving. As it began picking up speed, the locale immediately changed from what had appeared to have been a subway station to a yellowish void. Nelius went to go sit down, but the sound of something crashing through the rear door caught his attention- and just in time, too, as a blur of blue and white came flying right at him.

"Whoa!" Bracing for impact, he caught said blur, and then realized who it was he caught. "Wait a minute... Felicia?" Indeed, the musical star whom he'd been assigned to protect was here, but she looked roughed up, as if someone attacked her out of the blue.

"Unngh, Jon, stop... it's..me..." From the looks of her, she was barely conscious.

"Jon? Who's that?" The sound of growling grabbed his attention now, as he looked up to see... "Wait a sec... Talbain? That you, man?" There was no mistaking it, it was the same wolf-man he'd met before, but something about him seemed off. Setting Felicia down on one of the chairs, he approached. "Hey man, it's been a whi-" Nelius didn't get to finish, as Talbain lunged for his throat, fangs and claws at the ready. "Hey! What the hell?" Managing to hold him at bay, Nelius was trying to figure out what made him begin acting like this. Unfortunately, he ended up receiving a foot to his gut, sending him backwards a few steps. As he looked up, Talbain had summoned up a demonic aura around himself and was now speeding like a bullet toward Nelius. As the werewolf sped towards him, he sidestepped at the last second and - "Sorry I gotta do this to you." - quickly spun around, nailing the werewolf in the face with his foot and knocking him out of his attack.

'_Damn it, was what that guy said true? Is it the powers of this place making him act up?_' As the train sped on towards its new destination, it ended up passing by what had appeared to have been a mock lighting fixture. The light coming from this fixture reflected off of something within the car, catching Nelius' eye and momentarily distracting him, allowing Talbain to catch him off-guard with a horizontal cylinder of flame, shaped in the image of three wolves' heads.

'_Wait, what was that?_' Recovering from the fiery blast, Nelius' eyes darted around, looking for something... '_I'd have sworn it was... wait_.' It now dawned on him what it was he'd seen. However, it seemed Talbain wasn't willing to let him process this, and as such went back on the attack, pulling out a pair of nunchaku and attempting to bash a couple of new holes into Nelius' head. '_Two from the hand, one on the back of the neck, and the source is..._' As he had to backstep, sidestep, duck, jump, and make like the ever-changing wind to dodge the werewolf's attack, he kept his focus not on Talbain, but rather what was behind him.

"There!" His new target discovered, he brought his right hand to Talbain's face to stop his attacks, then thrusted his left hand toward the ceiling of the car. A blast of fire magic tore a nice, new hole in the roof, and knocked something out of place. At that moment, the werewolf slumped over, looking rather exhausted as Nelius jumped through the hole and onto the roof of the car.

"Unngh... impressive, otherworldly demon." Getting to its feet was... some kind of puppet, a marionette, to be precise. This one, however, looked nothing like the ones Nelius had seen back in his home dimension; it was much taller, and slimmer, its figure imitating that of a female, with the voice to match. "To see my strings and notice me right away... you might be a better toy than those two were." Immediately, she shot strings out from her fingertips, reaching for Nelius and attempting to place him under her control. "Come, let's play."

"Not happening, you overgrown splinter!" Setting one wing on fire, he placed it out in front of himself as a shield, then flew straight toward her, becoming a fireball of sorts. The strings that made contact with his wing caught fire, stopping right where they were. Once he was close enough, he unfurled the wing and landed a vicious uppercut to the marionette's midsection. "I already had to play subservient to someone else for too long!" The force of the uppercut sent her flying upward slightly, and he reared his other fist back. "It sure as hell won't happen AGAIN!" He let his reared back fist fly, and it caught her in the same location as the first hit, which was enough to crack her wooden frame in several places as she flew right off the side of the train.

"I may have lost, but the master will save us all... it is his eternal will..." Those were her final words as she plummeted into the endless yellow void that ran beneath the train.

'_As much as Maximoff and I hate each other, he did have one point..._.' Nelius turned his thoughts toward where the train was heading. '_Whoever's pulling this stunt's going to have some serious answering to do_.'

**MAKAI! **

Until next chapter,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


	8. Final Chapter

My Calling, Night Warriors: Here comes a new Challenger!

Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Bold text** Separates Paragraphs

Final Chapter: Majigen Collapse

"Unngh, owww..."

"Hey, welcome back to the land of the living." Looking to her right, Felicia's eyes focused on a person sitting across from her. "Sure, the accomodations are a little shabby, but the outside's much worse. Be glad we got the better end of the deal."

"Wait.. are you..."

"Yep, the same guy who made sure your concert was a success four years back. Unfortunately, you missed out on some action, but at least you get to enjoy a new skylight." Nelius pointed to the ceiling of the car, revealing the hole that had been blasted through.

"! Jon!" She went to sit up, but an immediate pain on her midsection forced her back down.

"You might want to stay down for a little while longer. I managed to heal up some of your wounds, but you might still be a bit sore. If you happen to be worried about Talbain, he's over there." He then pointed a little further down the car, where a familiar werewolf lay on the seat. "I'll bet you're wondering why he attacked you out of the blue." Felicia nodded. "That's because, if you'll ignore the painfully bad pun, someone was pulling some strings." When a look of confusion crossed her face, Nelius wiggled his fingers in a motion reminiscent of a puppeteer controlling a marionette, and she got the message. "If you don't mind my asking, how long have you known Talbain?"

"Well, it's been close to ten years since we met. While I was on tour back then, those machines popped up out of nowhere and started destroying everything. The girls and I tried to stop them, but we just didn't have the strength to pull it off... then, Jon showed up and tore into them with a ferocity I'd never seen before." Her gaze then went back to the ceiling of the car. "Sure, his interference there cost me a performance, but something he said to me didn't sit all that well... '_Humans and Darkstalkers cannot coexist_.' I wanted to prove him wrong."

"Well, did you hear about the fact he's teaching several kids self-defense?"

"I did, but I also heard that someone had been contracted to kill him at that time. When I got to where he lived, all I could see was this huge crater..."

"Yeah, that was my handiwork. Made it look like he tried to take me out with him, but as you can see, he's still alive and kicking. Those assholes at the nearby village weren't willing to give him a second chance or find out the truth about him, so they don't have to know I took some liberties in forging the completion of the assignment."

The train began to grind to a halt as something resembling a station platform came into view. The yellow lighting also began to dim slightly as the train pulled up.

"Last stop, kekeke. All who's getting off better disembark." The conductor announced. Nelius got up and proceeded toward the door. Felicia managed to pull herself up and went to follow. Nelius then stopped in front of the door.

"Not to sound condescending or anything, Felicia, but you might want to stay here."

"What for?"

"We can't just leave Talbain alone, can we? Besides, you know him much better than I do; it might be a bit easier on him if he awakens to a friendly face." Felicia had to admit to herself, he had a point. "And I'm willing to bet whoever created this realm's up ahead. I'd bet that once he goes down, this realm of his might go down with him as well."

"Wait. You're not planning on letting yourself die here, are you?"

"Not a chance in hell. I've got a lot of unfinished business back home, where I belong. If you can manage it, you should take Talbain and get out of here. Don't want either of you two getting caught up in the middle of all this, you've got your own problems to take care of." Nelius then stepped out of the train car and onto the platform as the train then began running in reverse. He waited until the train was far enough away, then moved forward, toward what appeared to be a set of stairs leading upward. At the top of these stairs was what appeared to be a model of this universe's solar system, and at an equal distance from the human and demon worlds was some sort of smaller planet, with what appeared to be several pathways running from the smaller planet to the human and demon worlds. '_Is this place leeching off the other worlds? What is going on?_'

_Well, well. What have we here? Another soul worthy of my mercy. _

'_Wha.. that voice again..._'

_Welcome to life's very cradle. All the preperations are near completion. _

'_Where's that coming from?_'

_You've proven yourself worthy of taking part in my ceremony. Come forth to receive... WHAT!_ The sounds of fighting quickly rang out.

_'Something's going on. Damn it, where is this guy?' _As if to answer his question, a dimensional rift began to tear open, and another area could be seen beyond. Without hesitation, Nelius quickly jumped through the rift and landed into the last area. When he landed, he immediately noticed that the floor, if one could call it such, felt... soft, squishy, almost organic. '_What in the hell..._' As he looked down at the floor, he saw it was a fleshy red color, and seemed to pulsate as if it were alive. Deciding he'd seen enough, he immediately lifted his gaze to see what was ahead of him, and quickly wished he hadn't.

What lay ahead of him was the largest... demon fetus, to put it simply. This whole room looked like a graphic representation of a child still in the womb of its mother, and appropriately enough, said fetus was asleep, _something_ flowing through the umbilical cord into it. Once in a while, a smile came over the baby's face, only adding to the disturbing fact that you could see through its skin and view all the still-forming organs beneath it. Put another way... an eyeball DOES NOT belong in the frontal lobe of the brain.

'_And here I thought my other uncle's diet was disturbing..._' Though he wasn't going to say it, Nelius felt absolutely sick at the sight of it. Thankfully, the sounds of fighting were enough to divert his attention away from it. He then jumped back in surprise as a large sword flew through the air, nearly clipping him in the process. The designs present on it held similarity to a face, but they now looked tortured and disfigured, almost a representation of its wielder.

"That sword.." It was then that Oboro's words came to mind.

'_It is the evil powers of this realm, drawing out the repressed desires within all. This realm can make even the stoutest of warriors lose to his inner demons_.'

"Damn, did he really fall that far?" Nelius only needed to look further ahead to get his answer. There he saw the Darkhunter, Donovan, but his outward appearance had changed, likely a reflection of his inner self. His new outfit looked suspiciously similar to Demitri's, except it was colored a deep crimson, likely inspired by the blood of others, and his once neatly combed hair was now wild and unruly. Taking the Dhylec sword, he went to attack his target. His opponent, a demon decked out in a full-body, azure colored suit, didn't even seem to being taking the battle too seriously, what with the way he was lazily dodging and blocking Donovan's attacks.

'_Looks like Donovan has that under control, for now..._' Something then told him eyes forward, and good thing he listened, as something resembling a saw blade came flying his direction. '_Got a bit too close to their fight... should find a better spot to watch from_.'

Donovan flipped backwards as his cape spread, summoning dozens of swords before launching them. In response, the demon's scythe-like wings grew extra protusions to shield him from the attack. He should've kept his guard up, as Donovan transformed into some kind of winged monstrosity and launched himself at the demon, electrifying him. Reverting back to his original self, Donovan grabbed his weapon, the Dhylec, and charged forward.

"You know, I really have to thank you." The blue-skinned demon admitted as he ripped one of his wings off to use as a weapon. If Donovan had heard him, he didn't pay any mind, as the two traded attacks. "Your presense here will undoubtedly attract my real target."

"Real target?" These words left him confused, and that moment of hesitation was all it took for a puddle of red liquid to form beneath his feet, and from that puddle, dozens of hands reached out, grabbing Donovan and pulling him in.

"To think a human could have that power... I really have missed much since then." He then sunk down to continue his fight.

'_Damn, whoever that guy is, I can feel his strength increasing, even when Donovan's beating on him.. He's gotta be siphoning his power from somewhere, but where..._' It was then that an idea came to him, and he forced himself to take another good look at the gigantic unborn. "I know there's something flowing into that thing... wait..." His mind then flashed back to that diagram from earlier...

A seperate planet, and a steady stream of something flowing from both the human and demon worlds to here...

"Shit, those are souls! That's what he meant by all returning to one." His next target confirmed, Nelius jumped into the air and began speeding towards the fetus. '_Gotta stop that thing from absorbing any more souls_.' All of a sudden, a giant liquid hand rose up, grabbing him and slamming him into the floor.

"Ah, ah, ah... I can't have that, now can I?" As Nelius got up, he saw this realm's creator, Jedah Dohma... and Donovan was nowhere in sight. "And here I figured you to be one deserving my mercy."

"Yeah, and I can tell you just where to shove that 'mercy' of yours." His left hand went to his back, where he'd used his wings to hold his axe in place.

"Hm? Well, this is surprising... two in one, quite the deal."

"What?" Feeling that he was trying to confuse him, like he did Donovan, Nelius quickly hovered off the ground, drawing his axe as he levitated in the air.

"I sense two souls inhabiting the same shell... two seperate entities, completely different from that cast-off fragment. Very interesting..."

"I think I've heard enough." '_How do I stall this guy long enough to abort his little project back there?_' He wasn't given enough time to contemplate a strategy, as his opponent came charging in. Sharp, protruding fingernails and wingtips came flying his way, and he quickly went on defense, dodging and diverting the attacks around himself. When Jedah ripped two of his own wings off of his back and flung them toward Nelius, you could see that the moment they were released from his grip, they quickly grew serrated edges, becoming flying discs of death. As soon as they had been dealt with, Jedah came charging at him, another wing transformed into a full-length scythe, ready to cleave Nelius in two. In immediate response, his ands went up, and the technological shields quickly appeared, stopping his attack dead in its tracks.

"Oh, have you?" He seemed to be particularly bemused by this little battle. "Have you seen the current state of the demon world? That fool, Belial, let it all go to rot. He believes that death and decay are all natural parts of the cycle. I am taking the necessary steps to save Makai." Jedah flicked another wing upward, turning it into another scythe, forcing Nelius to divert his axe toward the wing in order to stop it.

"And what part of that involves forcing every soul in this universe into a giant demon baby?" Flipping his grip on the axe around, Nelius came in with an upward swing, and Jedah blocked the attack by enlarging his wings to divert the blow. When the Majigen's creator went to stab him with his elongated fingernails, Nelius generated another barrier from his gauntlet; this one was smaller, more focused.

"Why exclude the humans? They, too, deserve to take part in my ceremony of relief. As do you." Slicing his wrist open, Jedah shot some of his own blood onto the ground, forming it into a hand. The hand rose up, ready to grab Nelius again.

"Sorry, I don't have any intention of taking part in any ceremony. I got my own business to take care of." Flying out of the hand's reach, Nelius went to attack, but saw Jeadh ripping two more wings off of his back. '_Geez, they keep growing back... hang on, I got another idea_.' He waited as Jedah connected the two wings end to end, then began spinning them, creating a buzzsaw out of them. '_C'mon, fling it, fling it..._' The wings were thrown, and Nelius waited for them to get close enough. '_This is gonna hurt later on_.' He outstretched both arms, catching the wing-saw in both hands, wincing as he could feel the sheer force of the thing as it span in his hands. Then, with as much strength as he could muster on his own, he flung the saw back at Jedah. '_Let's see, are you gonna take the hit or..._'

"You think I'll fall for such a tactic?" He merely lowered his height, ducking beneath his own wings.

"Actually, I wanted you to dodge."

"Such boldness. And why would you hope for me to do so?"

"Oh, about five seconds... and..." An eardrum-rupturing shriek rocked the room...

"NO! The Shinitai, my creation..." As Jedah looked in abstract horror to see his own creation's umbilical cord sliced open by his own wings. With the unborn no longer taking in souls, and in fact leaking souls, the realm began to shift and waver uncontrollably. "Have you any idea what you've done?"

The last thing either of them had seen was the unborn's brain-eye opening before it ruptured, then everything went white.

**MAKAI! **

"With the collapse of Jedah's realm, Nelius ceased to be."

"Wait, that isn't right. I mean, I'm right here."

"At the very final moment, a window of hope opened, sucking him in."

"Doesn't that contradict your previous statement?"

"However, he wasn't going to like what he saw on the other side."

"Hold on. I thought you two hated each other?"

"Well, this is the last time we're gonna see each other for a while, until..."

"Should I even bother complaining?"

"Next time on Co-reigning Makai Queens Morrigan and Lilith, Episode 19: Welcoming an old Rival to the family."

"Hey, you two. It's been a while. You two haven't changed in the slightest."

"We'd have come over, but there's this going on and..."

"Ugh, I give up. Do what you want."

**MAKAI!**

Until next story,

Cornell Valentine Gainsborough


End file.
